Box Score TURLOCK, CA – The Chaminade softball team's quest for a title was dashed with a 9-2 loss to St. Martin's in a semifinal game in the Gold Bracket of the Tournament of Champions Presented by Mizuno today.
The Silverswords, who won the Bronze Bracket championship last year, fell to 22-16 on the season, suffering back-to-back losses for the first time since March 13-14. The Saints improved to 26-10.
All but one of Saint Martin's nine runs came with two outs. The Saints also clubbed four homers.
The Silverswords, on the 13
th day of their current road trip, got on the board in the top of the third when
Shannan Hokama (Torrance, CA/South) lead off the inning with a double. Two batters later,
Rayna Strom-Okimoto (Aiea, HI/Aiea), the current Hawai'i Tourism Authority Pac West Player of the Week, hit a ground-rule double, driving Hokama home.
The Saints broke the game wide open with a 4-run fifth, using three doubles and a home run.
CUH added its second run of the game in the sixth, as
Elia Lizarraga got on board by an error and advanced to second on a groundout. Three batters later, Hokama brought Lizarraga home on a RBI single, but
Samantha Ford (Honolulu, HI/Word of Life) was thrown out trying to move from first to third on the play.
Chaminade starter
Brett Aspel (Redondo Beach, CA/Redondo Union) took the loss, going 3.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits. Aspel fell to 12-9. Taylor Bakos got the win in relief, improving to 12-5. Hokama and Strom-Okimoto each finished with two hits and an RBI.
For the second straight year, Strom-Okimoto was named to the all-tournament team. The senior shortstop had a .435 average during the TOC and her 12 RBI and 22 total bases led all players. She was also tied for the tournament lead in home runs with three.
Hokama finished with seven runs scored, the third-most by all players in the TOC.
Tumamaopavaiai Enos (Pahoa, HI/Pahoa) ended with a .412 average, while
Kori Berinobis batted .400. In the circle, Aspel and
Kaitlyn Watanabe (Kula, HI/Baldwin) were 2-1 with Aspel holding a 2.37 ERA while Watanabe finished at 3.68. As a team, Chaminade finished second in batting at the TOC, hitting at a .333 clip. In the circle, the Swords had a 3.13 ERA.
"Brett was a little tired with all these games played," Chaminade head coach Kent Yamaguchi said. "But the team didn't want to give in with being tired. It was a good run, but now we gotta get recharged for the upcoming conference games."
The Silverswords are back at the friendly confines of Corp Field and resume Pac West Conference action on Thursday when they face Hawai'i Pacific in a doubleheader starting at 4:30 p.m. Streaming audio for both games will be available on goswords.com.
