In memory of former teammate Zach Manago, who passed away this past December, the Moanalua baseball team won impressively over a strong visiting Roosevelt team 13-3 in the opening game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Division season.
 
“We scored more runs than them which is the key to every victory,” said Moanalua head coach Scott Yamada.
 
Senior Bronson Shim struck out ten batters over 5 2/3 innings and Na Menehune garnered 13 runs on 11 hits to earn the victory. Senior catcher James Higa went 2-for-3 with two RBI's and two doubles, Jordan Deponte added two more RBI's, and Regan Lum smacked a two-run home run in the sixth.
 
“Today, we were just looking to play for our friend Zach Manago. He impressed us to perform at our best,” senior outfielder Michael Egami commented.  “We are just excited to be able to get out and play and start the season off with a positive win.”
 
Manago was a member of the Moanalua baseball last season and was instrumental in helping them attain an 11-7-1 record and entry into the HHSAA state tournament.
 
Prior to the opening pitch a brief ceremony was held to recognize the life achievements of the student-athlete. The ceremony was held on the beautiful diamond at Moanalua. “We work very hard on up keeping this ball park,” Egami said.
 
“I was playing for our friend Zach. That’s it. That was our main goal,” Higa revealed. “We’re just trying to work as a team and try to win as many games as we can.”
 
Higa said that the recipe to Moanalua possibly having a great season will depend on the performance of its pitching staff.
 
“We work with them every practice. They are working hard to throw strikes. Although they gave up some runs today they seemed to be steadily getting better and hopefully they can led us to many victories,” Higa said.
 
Yamada ended his interview by saying “We have a lot of motivation for this senior bunch to play as well as they can in the memory of Zach. They were really close friends of Zach and I’m sure he would have wanted them to continue playing their best.”