Waiakea shortstop Trayden Tamiya barely had time to react when Kailua’s Bryson Ballesteros crushed a ball to his right.
He took one step, stuck out his glove and took away a hit to end the bottom of the fifth.
It was that kind of night for the BIIF champion Warriors, who parlayed some early hitting with a dominant outing from Cody Hirata to shut out Kailua 5-0 on Thursday in the semifinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Baseball Championships at Les Murakami Stadium.
Waiakea (17-0) secured a second consecutive trip to the Division I state championship game after losing to Maui in last year’s final.
The Warriors, who won a state title in 2012 with Kean Wong and Quintin Torres-Costa leading the way, can become the first team to win a second state title this decade with one more win to cap an undefeated season.
“This year our approach was to play the long game and not just win (the BIIF),” Waiakea coach Rory Inouye said. “We knew we had a great team and have kept preaching (to) them to work hard and don’t just settle with taking (the BIIF championship) and see how far we can take this thing.”
That approach includes going with a four-man rotation for the entire season, leaving Inouye with two starters to choose from for tonight’s final.
Hirata made sure Inouye had all the options he needed for tonight. The 5-foot-10 junior right-hander tossed a one-hitter with five strikeouts and faced only one batter over the minimum.
Matthew Kaleiohi’s leadoff single to start the game was the only hit for the Surfriders (14-3), who had two of their three baserunners in the game thrown out attempting to steal second by catcher Jacob Igawa.
Kailua never had a runner reach scoring position.
“This was my first-ever complete game,” Hirata said. “I wanted to put in the work this offseason because I wanted to come back to this moment again and get to the championship game and possibly win it.”
Waiakea hasn’t lost since last year’s 6-1 defeat to MIL runner-up Maui on the same field. In 17 games this season, the Warriors have given up more than three runs only twice.
“Last year we relied on our two aces and our other pitchers didn’t get that much experience,” Hirata said. “The one thing that got to change was our rotation this year. All of our pitchers have gotten experience so that at any moment they are ready and (tonight) we’ll be able to throw our No. 3 or our No. 4”
After issuing a leadoff walk, Hirata retired 13 in a row, including Ballesteros, who deserved a better outcome on a ball he drilled that was snagged just above the turf by Tamiya at short.
“He hit it hard — squared that one up —and it was just kind of a reaction play,” Tamiya said. “I just dove to try to stay in front of it. I just wanted to knock it down and keep the ball in the infield.”
The Warriors scored all of their runs in the first inning. Casey Yamauchi walked and scored in the first inning and Safea Mauai doubled and scored on Reese Mondina’s RBI single.
Two Kailua errors accounted for three more Waiakea runs in the third inning. Sophomore Kalai Rosario singled home a run and then scored on the play as the ball got under the center fielder and rolled nearly all the way to the wall 385 feet away.
“That experience from last year has helped us,” Inouye said. “This was a great performance by (Hirata). To face a team like Kailua and hold them to one hit is great to see him have such a great performance.”
