Welcome to AJA Baseball

Congratulations to Waialae, Oahu AJA Baseball Association Champions. Waialae will augment its squad with players from the rest of the league and travel to Kauai on April 3 & 4 to challenge the Maui, Big Island and Kauai champions for the coveted State Championship at Vidinha Stadium.

The Oahu AJA Championship Series concluded on Sunday (March 14) @ Hans L'Orange as Waialae defeated Pearl City 8 to 5. Waialae jumped out to an early 7 to 2 lead, then withstood several Pearl City comebacks, including a final 8th inning rally. With the score 7 to 5, the bases loaded and no outs, Waialae escaped with no further runs being scored with a strikeout and a crazy inning ending double play on a dropped line drive to the first baseman who threw to the shortstop to force out the runner at 2nd who then threw to the catcher at home to tag the runner coming home. Pearl City had quashed a potential big rally by Waialae an inning earlier with a double play in a bases loaded situation starting with a pickoff at 1st base by the pitcher which resulted in the runner at 1st and 3rd beign tagged out.

On Thursday (March 11), 7pm @ Hans L'Orange, Pearl City, behind the gutty pitching performance of Sean Yamashita, held off Waipahu 8 to 4 and advances to Sunday's (March 14) Championship game 10am @ Hans L'Orange to play Waialae with the IF game to follow if necessary. Yamashita entered in the 2nd inning and pitched the remainder of the game, allowing only 3 runs while getting out of several bases loaded jams. For Waipahu, Shaun Kiriu, pitching on only 3 days rest (having pitched a 9 inning complete game on Sunday), tossed a strong 9 innings complete game. On Wednesday (March 10) @ Ala Wai, Pearl City trailing 3 to 2, broke open the game with a 6 run 7th inning rally and a 4 run 9th inning, to beat Ewa, 13 to 3. Pearl City, who had 20 hits for the game, got 13 hits in the last 3 innings. PC's Daven Hermosura pitched a complete game, giving up 8 hits while stranding 8 runners. On Tuesday (March 9), Waialae defeated Waipahu 9-3 behind the 9 inning iron man performance of Chris Loo, who had also pitched one inning of relief on Sunday. Loo, gave up 3 runs & 3 hits in the 1st inning, then shut out Waipahu on 2 hits the rest of the way. Waialae was led by 1st baseman Chris Mols with 2 hits and 4 rbi, including a basehit with the bases loaded to drive in the tying run in the pivotal 7th inning when Waialae scored 6 runs to take the lead. Mike Higa, also had 2 hits with a 2 run homer in the 7th.

The Oahu AJA Championship Series started March 7 (Sun). Regular Season 2nd place Waipahu, behind a 5 hit 9 inning performance by Most Wins & ERA Leader pitcher Shaun Kiriu, defeated 3rd place Ewa, 5 to 1 in the early game at Hans L'Orange. In the later game, Regular Season champion Waialae took an early 4 to 1 lead after 2 innings then watched as 5th place Pearl City battled back to eventually go ahead 5 to 4 in the 8th inning. Waialae won the game 6 to 5 with an exciting bottom of the 9th inning 2 run rally to offset an outstanding & gutty pitching performance by PC's Jason Kramer, who had entered the game in the 2nd inning and pitched the rest of the way.

The Oahu AJA Sudden Death Playoffs, a single elimination loser out playoff, started Feb 28 (Sun). Regular Season 4th place McCully defeated 9th place Mililani 9 to 7 in the 10am game at Hans L'Orange. 3rd place Ewa took 10 innings to narrowly edge out 10th place Olomana 7 to 6 in the 1pm game at Hans L'Orange. At the Ala Wai, in the 10am game, 7th place Sheridan beat 6th place Manoa 8 to 2 while in the 1pm game, 5th place Pearl City held off 8th place Kaneohe 8 to 5. In the second round of the Sudden Death Playoff, 3rd place Ewa, with pitcher Travis McGaugh weaving his way thru 9 innings, outlasted 7th place Sheridan 13 to 8 on Tuesday (March 2) 7pm at Hans L'Orange and moves on to the Oahu AJA Championship Series. 5th place Pearl City, behind the 1 hit 8 K 9 inning pitching performance of Sean Yamashita, defeated McCully 6 to 1on Wednesday (March 3) 6:30pm at Ala Wai to move on to the Oahu AJA Championship Series.

Waialae led the regular season with 15 wins & 3 losses. Waialae's David Chu won the Batting title hitting .449, Waipahu's Landon Nakata won the RBI with 23 while Kaneohe's Paul Nishimura & Aaron Asher and Sheridan's Reid Matsushima all tied with 2 HRs. Matsushima entered the season's final game with a chance to become only the 2nd player since Sheridan's Derek Honma in 2005 in the combined Oahu AJA Baseball League history to win the Triple Crown but fell short. Waipahu's Shaun Kiriu won the ERA title with a 0.40 ERA while leading the league with 6 wins while Manoa's Eric Lum is KO King with 58 Ks.

The League would like to acknowledge its generous donors, in particular Mrs. Lillian Yajima, who has annually supported AJA baseball and Mr. Walter Ifuku, former longtime Board member, who made a substantial donation last year.