Stars Hand Eri Yoshida First Loss of the Season

Saturday night’s featured attraction at Wong Stadium was Na Koa Ikaika Maui’s Eri Yoshida, also known as the “Knuckle Princess,” but the show stealer was her opposing starting pitcher, Ronnie Loeffler of the Hawai’i Stars, who pitched a complete game to lead his team to an 8-3 win in front of a buzzing crowd of 364.

Na Koa took an early lead in the fourth inning when Nick Valdez scored Waylen Sing Chow on a ground ball out to shortstop, but the Stars came back immediately for a big inning off of Yoshida. The first four batters reached base safely in the three-run bottom of the fourth against the knuckleball hurler. Anthony Lopez started the scoring with an RBI single to left field that scored Steve Tedesco. The next batter, Brenden Davis, singled in Matt Hibbert, and Jason Thomas brought in Lopez on a 4-3 double play ground ball out.

Yoshida watched the bases load up against her in the fifth inning with no one out, and the home team used that to produce another three-run frame. Jose Angel Sanchez scored on a Tedesco fielders choice for the first run and out. Two batters later, Tedesco and Keoni Manago scored on an infield single from Lopez. Manago scored thanks to a throwing error from Maui second baseman Gerald Mochizuki, who tried to fire a throw to Yoshida who was covering first base on the play.

The fifth inning turned out to be the last inning for Yoshida (3-1), who started strong by striking out the first two batters she faced in the game. She allowed six runs overall, four of them earned, on eight hits with three strikeouts and one walk.

via Stars Hand Eri Yoshida First Loss of the Season | Big Island Now.