Saint Louis claims ILH title

The No. 1 seed in the state tournament was an added bonus to Saint Louis’ first ILH baseball title in six years.

Dawson Yamaguchi took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and the No. 1-ranked Crusaders, who blew a three-run lead in the seventh inning 14 days ago in a loss to Kamehameha, won their fourth in a row since with a 5-1 victory over the Warriors to claim the outright ILH championship Monday at Ala Wai Community Park.

Keith Torres tripled and scored two runs and Matt Wong added a two-run single for Saint Louis (16-5), which was named the No. 1 seed in the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Baseball Championships in brackets released right after the game.

Rain and unplayable field conditions resulted in the ILH title game being postponed three times, forcing a Monday final.

No. 3 Kamehameha (14-6), which lost three games to Saint Louis in nine days needing to win only one to claim the ILH crown, has to turn around and play Kalani in the first round of the state tournament Wednesday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

“Whoever is the team to play (Kamehameha) in the first round, I would not be excited with that draw, because they’ll be ready,” Saint Louis coach George Gusman said. “They have three really good starters. I think we’d have had a harder time with the (quick) turnaround than they will.”

Saint Louis has three quality starters of its own and Gusman entered Monday’s game expecting all three to pitch.

Yamaguchi was given a 2-0 lead when Torres tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly and Charles Lopez added an RBI triple in the top of the first inning.

The left-hander took the mound and struck out Kamehameha leadoff hitter Kawai Takemura on a 1-2 fastball that painted the inside corner.

That’s when Gusman quickly realized he might have to scrap the original pitching game plan.

“We were going to cap (Yamaguchi) at 45 (pitches) and cap (Dylan) Lum at 45 (pitches) and whatever was left was going to go to Chase (Meilleur),” Gusman said. “(Yamaguchi’s ball) was fluid and moving and we said all right, let’s cap it off at 60 and then we said he’s absolutely not throwing more than 85 and that’s as far as we went.”

Yamaguchi threw 80 pitches in 52⁄3 innings with no walks and four strikeouts. He gave up a one-out double to reliever Jesse Awa, who scored on a sacrifice fly by Takemura.

Gusman took out Yamaguchi and put in Lum, who recorded the final four outs in a row with two strikeouts.

Yamaguchi threw a two-hit shutout against Kamehameha in his previous outing.

“Beating them three times in a row was a hard thing to do. All they had to do is win one,” Yamaguchi said. “It was a team effort. Our pitch-calling kept them off balance and our defense made great plays.”

Wong, whose two-run single in the fourth inning gave Saint Louis a 4-0 lead, made two diving catches in right field to rob Kamehameha of hits.

The first resulted in a double play when he threw out Wilhelm Cordes going back to the bag at first after Cordes reached on an error.

The second ended the sixth inning after Kamehameha scored its only run.

“I think the second one was better, but the first one was maybe a little more important,” Wong said.

Yamaguchi will be available for Saint Louis’ first tournament game on Thursday after keeping his pitch count at 85 or less.

Kamehameha starter Hunter Breault allowed two runs on three hits with two walks and four strikeouts in three innings and threw 55 pitches, making him available to pitch Wednesday.

“The first thing you go through is we have to shake (the loss) off,” Kamehameha coach Thomas Perkins said. “It’s done. Tomorrow we will regroup, again, and make sure we’re ready to play Wednesday.”

The Warriors, who won the ILH first round, are 2-5 against Saint Louis and 12-1 against everyone else in the ILH.

At Ala Wai Field

KS (14-6) 000 001 0 — 1 1 2

Saint Louis (16-5) 200 210 x — 5 4 2

Hunter Breault, Jesse Awa (4), Jace Borja (6) and Dylan Sarcedo. Dawson Yamaguchi, Dylan Lum (6) and Kai Perreira-Alquiza. W—Yamaguchi. L—Breault.

Leading hitters—KS: Awa 2b. StL: Keith Torres 3b, 2 runs; Matt Wong 2-4, 2 RBIs; Charles Lopez 3b.