WAIPAHU, Hawaii — A deflating loss on the final day of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu regular season provided Saint Louis all the fuel it needed to earn a state baseball berth the hard way.
The Crusaders’ 5-3 win over Iolani at Central Oahu Regional Park on Wednesday was the team’s third straight in the double-elimination ILH tournament. It clinched one of the ILH’s three berths to states for Saint Louis, which finished second in the 2023 regular season due to the stunning 4-1 loss to Division II Damien on April 8.
“We took it hard. I’ll be honest with you, we took it hard. The entire team took it hard,” Saint Louis coach George Gusman said Wednesday. Some tweaks to the team’s offense ensued, he said, and Saint Louis (12-4-1) responded with five-inning mercy wins over Pac-Five and Mid-Pacific to begin the tournament.
Iolani (10-6-1), however, was one of the hottest teams around, having strung together impressive wins over Maryknoll, Punahou and regular-season champ Kamehameha in the tourney.
In the teams’ first meeting since a wild 11-11 tie in eight innings at CORP on March 23, Crusaders junior outfielder/pitcher Tanner Chun had the a two-RBI hit in Saint Louis’ five-run third inning, answering three runs from Iolani in the top of the frame.
Then Chun came on in relief of starter Kolby Gushiken in the seventh for the save, clinching the state berth.
“We just came back to work,” Chun said of getting over the Damien game. “We talked it over as a team. That night, we let it go. The next day we’re on to the next game, focusing trying (to get) to states.”
Gushiken got the Crusaders into the seventh despite giving up nine hits in his longest outing of the season.
Soon after taking over, Chun walked Cole Ide to load the bases with one out; the tying run was at second. But Chun induced a fielder’s choice groundout from Brock Makishima – Travis Ujimori was forced out at home on the play – and then Chun got Cadence Ueyama to fly out to right to end it.
Chun said he focused on putting every pitch in the strike zone so his teammates could make the right play in the field.
“Everybody’s hearts beating pretty quick, and you’ll never know if they can do it until they’re in that situation,” Gusman said. “I’m just happy for Tanner as well as the rest of our guys. It’s just a great win over a great team.”
Now the Crusaders are within reach of the ILH tournament title; they will play Friday against the winner of Thursday’s 3:30 p.m. matchup at CORP between Iolani and Kamehameha. Should Saint Louis win that one, it’ll face Kamehameha for the overall ILH title on Saturday.
Iolani doubled up Saint Louis in hits, 10-5, getting multi-hit games from Bruin Agbayani, Mana Lau Kong and Ujimori at the top of the lineup.
Trent Ihle went all six innings for his team in the loss, striking out four and walking three.
“I thought our kids played hard, they played well,” Iolani coach Kurt Miyahira said. “(Saint Louis is) a good ballclub. Our kids keep fighting, keep playing, and they’ll have the opportunity to do it again tomorrow. We’ll go out there, let it hang and see what happens.”
A tightly played ILH tournament elimination game at CORP turned decisively on a controversial play in the bottom of the sixth inning.
With the game tied 1-1, Kamehameha pinch runner Kiai Kawai attempted to score from second on Jayden Montero’s single. Kawai barreled hard into Mid-Pacific catcher Noah Kubo, who positioned himself along the third-base line, far removed from the plate, to receive a wayward throw home.
Kawai knocked Kubo over as the ball sailed to the backstop, stepped around him and scored. Kubo remained down for several minutes and required attention from athletic trainers; he was eventually helped off woozily.
“Just a hard baseball play,” Kamehameha coach Daryl Kitagawa said. “(Kubo) was going for the ball, (Kawai) was running home. You cannot help. Both kids collided, unfortunately. I just hope that Noah’s in good shape, to be honest, wishing him speedy recovery.”
Said MPI coach Dunn Muramaru, “They called it obstruction. It’s part of the rules.”
Asked if he thought it was a legal play, Muramaru said, “I don’t know about legal, but it was just bang-bang. The runner ran into our guy. That’s the part I didn’t like. He could’ve avoided the tag and it could’ve been obstruction, but he didn’t have to run into our guy.”
Here's a photo sequence of the collision:
Kamehameha (12-5) went on to score four more times in the inning. It advanced to face Iolani at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in another tournament elimination game for the right to face Saint Louis on Friday.
Muramaru said the outcome hinged on that sequence, but on his team’s side of things. “We just didn’t make the play at home. We throw the ball to home (plate), we’re out of the inning. So, we just didn’t do our part.”
Mid-Pacific (11-7) needs Kamehameha to win to have a chance at a playoff with Iolani for the third and final ILH berth. If Iolani wins Thursday, MPI is eliminated from state contention.
“Make sure you guys win, eh, tomorrow,” Muramaru said to a Kamehameha player as he walked to the team bus.
Greyson Osbun, Caleb Okada and Kainoa Kaneshiro combined on a two-hitter for Kamehameha. Osbun got the win working five innings. Elijah Ickes, Aukai Kea and Jace Souza had multi-hit games for the Warriors, with Souza and Cody Branco driving in two runs apiece.
Payton Dixon took the loss for MPI, going 5 1/3 innings.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.