It was rocking Thursday night at Maehara Stadium in Wailuku, with a jubilant, emotional crowd of more than 3,000 rooting on Kamehameha Maui and Baldwin to victories that advance both baseball teams to the state semifinals.
Maui Interscholastic League runner-up Baldwin squeaked out a 1-0 victory over No. 1-seed Kamehameha Schools Kapalama from Honolulu despite being outhit in the game five to one.
And in the nightcap, behind an almost complete game by left-handed pitcher Kanoa Arakawa, MIL league champion Kamehameha Maui made its first state final four in school history with a 6-2 win over Leilehua High from Oʻahu.
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“It’s cool. It’s cool for our program,” said Kamehameha Maui coach Shane Dudoit said. “It’s cool for our administration and (Bishop Princess Bernice) Pau’ahi. Without her, none of these guys get to do what we do.”
And Dudoit added: “I think it’s great for Maui. I think it’s great for Maui baseball. Best of luck to (Coach) Craig (Okita) and the Baldwin Bears. We’ve got some really good players in our league.”
Today, both semifinals games of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/Hawaiʻi High School Athletic Association state tournament will be played at Maehara Stadium.
At 4 p.m., Baldwin will try to knock off No. 4-seeded Waiakea to advance to its fourth straight state championship game.
At 7 p.m., Kamehameha Maui plays Saint Louis, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up.
This marks just the second time since 2007, and the second year in a row, that the MIL has had two state final four teams in Division I baseball.
This is the 10th time in the last 14 state tournaments that the Baldwin Bears have advanced to the state semifinals, including last season when they were declared co-state champions with Maui High after the championship game was rained out with the score tied at 2-2.
It also was the second year in a row that the Bears, as the MIL’s second-place team, beat the top-seeded Kapalama Warriors while being out-hit. Last season in the state semifinals, Kamehameha Kapalama had six hits to Baldwin’s four in a 3-2 Bears triumph.
For Kamehameha Maui, Arakawa led the way, coming up one out short of a complete game on the mound. The lefty finished with 111 pitches. While the pitch limit by national high school rules is 110, pitchers are allowed to finish the batter they are facing when they reach 110.
With the bases loaded, Bransyn Hong came on in relief and ended the game with a one-pitch ground out to earn the save.
Baldwin beat Kailua of Oʻahu 3-1 on Wednesday to set up the rematch with Kamehameha Kapalama.
“I mean, I’m sure this stadium is going to be packed and we’re up against Kamehameha again,” Baldwin coach Craig Okita said after Wednesday’s victory. “I’m sure they were looking forward to this rematch all year long and we’re going to go out there to compete and give it our best shot.”
And they did. It also turned out to be a true rematch, with the same starting pitchers — Jayden Perry-Waikiki for Baldwin and Greyson Osbun for Kamehameha Kapalama. Six Bears who played in the matchup last season also played Thursday night, while five Warriors also played in both games.
On Thursday, after escaping with the win behind a five-hit complete game by Perry-Waikiki, Okita could only shake his head.
“It’s just, they’re a great team and we got one hit, they got five, and they made some mistakes (three errors),” Okita said Thursday. “We had some opportunities to score more, but they’re tough … they’re tough to score against. I told our guys at the beginning, ‘We can give up two runs today. If we give up two runs today, we’ll have a shot’ and Perry pitched a hell of a game.
“We made some awesome defensive plays when we needed them and that’s baseball, that’s just baseball. … Yeah, like I said, we’re fortunate.”
Kapalama coach Daryl Kitagawa said that his top-ranked team was beaten by a perennial power in the state.
“They’re well-coached, they play the game the right way, they won tonight,” Kitagawa said. “No ifs, ands or buts.”
Last season marked the first time in any sport in Hawai’i at the Division I level that the two finalists were from the same Neighbor Island league.
“They play great baseball, always have and will continue to be,” Kitagawa said. “(Baldwin’s) a good club. Maui High’s a good club. Kamehameha Maui’s a good club. So congratulations to Baldwin tonight.”
The result left the Kapalama Warriors at 29-7 on the season. They play Kaiser in for fifth place today at 11 a.m. Osbun has signed to play with the University of Nevada, while teammate Elai Iwanaga has signed to play for UCLA.
Baldwin improved to 17-8-1 as the Bears supported Perry-Waikiki with stellar defense while the sophomore right-hander also found his way out of a couple jams.
Perry-Waikiki needed just 89 pitches to finish the game with one strikeout and one walk.
“Unfortunately, I let guys get on base, but my team got me. They had my back. They kept talking to me throughout the game and I just competed,” Perry-Waikiki said.
He bounced back from a loss in the MIL championship game on April 29 and was making just his fifth start of the season after missing more than half the season with a hand injury he suffered in February. He had dislocated his pitching thumb, which required three screws to be implanted and then removed.
“I thought I was out for the season, but I’m really glad to be back tonight,” he said.
In the nightcap, Leilehua (9-6) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI by Blaze Manutai and a run-scoring single by Jacob Sablan. Kamehameha Maui (18-5-1), the MIL champions for the first time since 2009, tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring error off the bat of Duke Aloy and a bases-loaded walk issued to Teyvon Kahalewai.
After two walks wrapped around a base hit in the bottom of the fourth inning, Hong stepped to the plate with no outs and drove in a pair of runs with a sharp single to left field. Freshman Zaiyah Madamba Barozzo then delivered another run with a line-drive single to center field.
Moments later, Hong stole home on the front end of a double steal to push the Kamehameha Maui lead to 6-2.
Arakawa was stellar on the mound for the second big game in a row. He threw an 8-0 shutout over Baldwin for the overall MIL championship on April 29.
“He did really well,” Dudoit said. “That’s a scrappy Leilehua team. They punched us in the jaw early. And we took some pitches. We’re lucky to get some runs back.”
Arakawa was effective after giving up five hits in the first inning.
“It feels pretty amazing that we’re just making this much progress,” said Arakawa, a junior left-hander. “It’s just really nice to see how much progress we’ve made throughout these last two years.”
Arakawa said that his team answering the Mules’ two-run top of the first with two runs in the bottom of the first was a huge key in the win.
“It showed that our team wasn’t going to give up and we just kept on battling,” Arakawa said. “So once we got those two back, the game pretty much restarted. So I just got out there, started getting ahead early, let them hit my pitches and that really helped us.”
Thursday’s Quarterfinal Results
BALDWIN 1, KS KAPALAMA 0
Baldwin 100. 000 0—1. 1. 1
KS Kapalama 000. 000 0—0. 5. 3
Jayden Perry-Waikiki and Kai Watanabe; Greyson Osbun, Kainoa Kaneshiro (7) and Taj Uyehara. W—Perry-Waikiki. L—Osbun.
Leading hitters—KS Kapalama, Logan Akaka 3-3.
KS MAUI 6, LEILEHUA 2
Leilehua. 200 000 0—2. 10. 2
KS Maui 200. 400 x—6. 7. 2
Zayden Winter, Titan Pasco (4) and Ryden Sasaki; Kanoa Arakawa, Bransyn Hong (7) and Duke Aloy. W—Arakawa. L—Winter. Sv—Hong. 2B—Leilehua, Blaze Manutai, Kyson Kobashigawa. 3B—Kamehameha Maui, Hong.
Leading hitters—Leilehua, Blaze Manutai 2-4, run, RBI; Keola Haloa 2-4, run. Kamehameha Maui, 2-2, 2 runs, 2 RBIs.
Wednesday’s First-Round Result
BALDWIN 3, KAILUA 1
Baldwin 000 200. 1—3 7. 1
Kailua 000. 001. 0—1. 3. 2
Kaden Anderson, Kip Watanabe (5) and Kai Watanabe; Jayden Hunt, D.J. Kauahi (4) and Kalana Carreira. W—Amderson. L—Hunt. Sv—Kip Watanabe. 2B—Baldwin, Malu Rosaga; Kailua, Brandon Moore.
Leading hitters—Baldwin, Kai Watanabe 2-3; Kaedyn Miyake-Matsubayashi 2-3, run, 2 RBIs.
