Korin Medeiros understands it’s his responsibility as the older brother.

Medeiros made a winner out of younger brother Kodi, delivering a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning to give No. 3 seed Waiakea a 2-1 victory over defending champion Pearl City in the Division I semifinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Baseball State Championships on Thursday at Les Murakami Stadium.

Kodi Medeiros pitched seven innings of three-hit ball with eight strikeouts and recorded the win when Korin Medeiros singled off Pearl City reliever Sumi Pruett, scoring pinch runner Rylan Kawazoe from third to end a well-played game.

"I thank him a lot for all the times he comes through," sophomore Kodi Medeiros said of Korin, a senior. "We finally made it to finals and have a chance to win it all."

Waiakea, which has never won a state championship in baseball, played in the title game once in 1996.

A return trip was up for grabs until the final inning, when the Warriors (19-0) loaded the bases with nobody out off of Chargers pitcher Tanner Tokunaga.

Pinch hitter Dean Hosaka and Quintin Torres-Costa, the winning pitcher in Wednesday’s 5-0 victory over Castle, singled to put runners on first and second.

Catcher Kean Wong drew a walk to load the bases after a wild pitch moved the winning run to third.

Pearl City coach Mitch Yamato turned to Pruett, a four-year letterman, with the bases loaded and nobody out.

After working ahead 2-0 in the count, Korin Medeiros lined a shot over shortstop Tyler Tokunaga into left-center to bring in Kawazoe to end the game.

"I wasn’t expecting a fastball — thought it would be a curve," Korin Medeiros. "It was right there and I hit it."

The single ended the Chargers’ run at a second consecutive state championship. Tanner Tokunaga tied the game with a bases-loaded walk in the sixth inning, but Pearl City (11-7) managed only three hits the entire game.

"Their pitcher was tough — he ran some pitches at different angles at us and was probably one of the best left-handed pitchers we’ve seen," Yamato said. "We knew coming in they were going to be tough and what can you say when they pitch like that?"

Yamato waited till just before first pitch to decide on senior Reid Akau as his starting pitcher. Junior Sean Milan also warmed up before the game but hurt his shoulder in the quarterfinals against Mid-Pacific and played in the outfield instead.

"Sean getting hurt last night didn’t help at all," Yamato said. "We thought he was going to be able to pitch, but safety-wise, he’s still got next year to go and we didn’t want him to get hurt further."

Akau kept his team in the game, allowing one run on five hits in 52/3 innings.

Robbey Meguro put the Warriors up 1-0 with a two-out RBI triple in the fourth.

Torres-Costa and Kodi Medeiros each had two hits for Waiakea.

"These kids have worked hard all year and it’s gratifying as a coach to see the rewards come through," Waiakea coach Kevin Yee said.