Overall, the baseball season had its ups and downs, involving big wins against league rivals like Waialua and Mckinley and disappointing losses against Kapolei and Waianae. Throughout all this adversary, Coach Tom Tereshuk and his team have held their heads high and pushed through, never being discouraged.
When asked which games were the toughest Tereshuk said, “All of our games are tough. All of the teams in the OIA DII are pretty evenly matched so every game is always going to be a tough game. Specifically, I would say Waianae, Kapolei, Kahuku, Kalaheo, and Waialua all have a reasonable chance of winning any league game no matter who they are playing. Sometimes versus these opponents we have done well. Other times we have not done so well. I do believe we have slowly and steadily been improving as the season progresses. We hope to be peaking at the right time in the playoffs. We’ll see.”
Following a devastating 6-2 loss on Senior Night to Wai’anae, the Rams were hot-headed, hoping to turn things around with a redemption win against one of their league rivals. On April 10, the Rams faced off against Kapolei in hopes of coming out on a high and a 5-4 record. The Hurricanes had full control of the game throughout the first 5 innings scoring 6 unanswered runs, but the Rams weren’t discouraged. The 6th inning sparked hope with Radford scoring 3 runs and holding Kapolei to 0. Top of 7th and the Rams needed 3 runs to keep hope alive. Kapolei let up 2 runs before finally getting their 3rd and final out of the game, sending Radford home with a 4-5 regular season record, with one game left to play.
“I believe our pitching has been the area that has improved the most over the course of the season. Xavier De Alba, Luke Barner, Jacob Barner, and Angel Garcia have been our horses on the mound and I have been pretty pleased with what they have done and how they have improved. You are in a pretty good situation if you can count on four different pitchers, and these are four guys we can count on when they take the mound. We need to do a better job of supporting them and that’s what we have been working on and we hope these things will fall into place in the playoffs,” said Tereshuk.
The Rams had a good first year under Tereshuk. Ending the regular season with a 4-6 record, and the Rams still have hope to continue playing. On April 24, Radford faces Kalaheo in a win or go home situation. Earlier in the season on March 27, Radford defeated the Mustangs in a close 7-6 run game. They hope to have a similar outcome in this upcoming game.