Monday Morning MIL: No. 3 seeded Baldwin softball team brings super seven seniors to state tourney

The Baldwin High School softball team is headed to the Division 1 state tournament on Oʻahu this week with a roster packed with seven super seniors, led by star 5-foot-7 infielders Bailey Nagasako and Briana Maio-Silva.

The duo both signed to play for the University of Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine, the first time two players from the same Maui Interscholastic League school class have done so.

After graduation at War Memorial Stadium on May 19, the other five seniors also are planning to play softball in college. Camryn Nakamura plans to play at George Fox University in Oregon; Ka’ala Kaho’ohalahala-Watanabe (St. Martin’s University in Washington); Kalia DeMello (Pima College in Arizona); Kiyana Nakagawa (Shoreline College in Washington); and Kekia Ka’a’a-Saltiban (who plans to play, but is unsure where).

“It’s a warm feeling to even witness something like that,” said Sanoe Montilliano Kekahuna, who has been head coach at Baldwin, her alma mater, for 10 years. “It’s that bond that they build from when they were kids and being able to have that experience to play the next level of college, it’s great to see.”

But first, the Bears are going after a state championship, a feat the Bears have accomplished in 2001 and 2007. On Wednesday in the quarterfinals, they face the winner of Tuesday’s game between Moanalua and Campbell, both located on Oʻahu. Baldwin was ranked fourth, Campbell fifth and Moanalua sixth in last week’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser top-10 poll.

The Bears enter the Datahouse/HHSAA Division I state tournament this week at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium as the No. 3 seed with a 20-2-2 record, including 14-0 in the Maui Interscholastic League.

Baldwin won its fourth straight league championship by outscoring MIL opponents 160-28.

On Wednesday, Nagasako and Maio-Silva, who plan to be roommates at UH Mānoa, will be able to get a feel for their new stadium.

Nagasako is leading the state Division 1 ranks in hitting with a .690 batting average (29 for 42) with 14 runs batted in, 14 doubles, two triples and two home runs. She plans to study civil engineering at UH.

Maio-Silva is hitting .561 (23 for 41) with 23 RBIs, six doubles, four triples and eight homers. She can’t wait to get to Mānoa, where her major, for now, is undecided.

“I’m actually very excited, especially to play at home and be an island away from my parents and other family members,” Maio-Silva said. “I think it’s great to be playing here and representing Maui, of course, and especially Baldwin.”

Last year, when the Bears were a final four team at state, they hit .507 as a team with 182 runs, 177 hits, smacked 20 home runs, and had a team earned run average of 1.27.

This year, the Bears are hitting .497 with 180 runs, 191 hits and 26 home runs and their team ERA is 1.93.

“I mean, our team is pretty good,” Nagasako said. “We bond together well. Everybody always works hard on and off the field. No matter what, we do our off-practice workouts. We all go to different places to work out harder, it’s not just here at practice.”

The Bears are three wins away from adding a third koa warrior head state championship trophy to their trophy case inside Jon Garcia Gymnasium on the Wailuku campus. The state semifinals are Thursday and the state championship game is Friday.

Montilliano Kekahuna graduated from Baldwin in 2007 before her standout career at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated in 2012. Now, she gets to watch a pair of her players move on to Division I college softball, representing the home state.

“I was more excited more than anything to have them continue that relationship that they have, that bond,” Montilliano Kekahuna said.

Nagasako said she will miss her teammates after this week.

“It’s kind of weird because we all played with each other for our four years of high school,” Nagasako said. “And just knowing that we’re not going to be, like, on the same team but, like, on to a different chapter. We have to make this week count.”

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Golf: Seabury Hall’s Tyler Loree becomes first MIL golfer to win two individual state titles

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Seabury Hall senior Tyler Loree became the first MIL golfer to win two individual state titles when he shot 4-under-par 140 at the Mauna Lani Resort North Course, beating second-place Lucas Summerhays of Island School by six shots.

Loree shot 5-under 67 on Thursday and 73 on Friday.

The only other boy state champion from the MIL was Maui High’s William Coelho (1988).

Two MIL girls have won state golf championships: Baldwin’s Shayna Miyajima (1999) and Cassie Isagawa (2010).

Maui Prep’s Renner Chumley finished fifth at 148 and Kihei Charter’s Lakota Lee was sixth at 149. Maui Prep finished fifth in the team standings and Baldwin was 11th.

In girls play Tuesday and Wednesday, Maui Prep took third place in the team standings, Baldwin was seventh and Maui High was 10th. 

Maui Prep’s Tehya Chumley was the top MIL finisher in ninth place at 154; three-time MIL champion Anessa Riglos of Baldwin was 13th at 157; Maui Prep’s Ava Kawahara was 14th, also at 157, and Sacha Salem was 20th at 159.

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Track and field: Kamehameha Maui girls, Baldwin boys win league team titles

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The Kamehameha Schools Maui girls and Baldwin boys won league track and field championships in the Central Pacific Bank MIL championship meet held Friday and Saturday at Yamamoto Track and Field Facility inside War Memorial Stadium.

The Warriors girls scored 131.5 points to outdistance second-place King Kekaulike by 30.5. Baldwin was third (79.5), Seabury Hall was fourth (76) and Maui High fifth (72).

Baldwin lapped the field in the boys standings, piling up 214 points, followed by Kamehameha Maui (77.9), King Kekaulike (74.2), Maui High (59.5) and Seabury Hall (56).

After league championship meets were held across the state over the weekend, the MIL has six No. 1 boys marks and one among girls going into the Island Movers/HHSAA meet set for Kealakehe High School on Hawai’i Island this Friday and Saturday.

Maui High junior Jonah Cariaga is tied for the state lead in the boys 100-meter dash (10.58 seconds) and leads the 200 (21.64). Baldwin’s Antone Sanches leads the state in the triple jump (44 feet, 10 inches), Casey Talana tops the long jump (22-6.5) and Brock Toma tops the pole vault (14-11). Kamehameha Maui’s Cody Gardanier has the best high jump mark in the state (6-4).

Among girls, Kamehameha Maui’s Allie Kennedy leads the state in the pole vault with a mark of 11-9.

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Flag football: Kamehameha Maui and Baldwin each go 1-2 at state tournament

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MIL champion Kamehameha Schools Maui won its opener at the first Hawai’i Dental Service/HHSAA girls flag football state tournament, beating Hilo 46-0 on Wednesday. Tyra Shimizu was 7-for-13 passing for three touchdowns, no interceptions and 163 yards for the Warriors. Kawena Cabanting caught two touchdown passes.

Kamehameha Maui lost to Punahou 12-0 in the quarterfinals Thursday and bowed out of the tournament with a 21-6 loss to Moanalua Friday.

MIL runner-up Baldwin lost its opener 27-18 to Campbell on Wednesday, beat Waiakea 40-8 on Thursday and finished its season Friday with a 25-6 loss to Waianae on Friday.

“Monday Morning MIL” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.