By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@staradvertiser.com
The anticipation started to build as soon as Saint Louis recorded its final out.
The Crusaders capped the first day of the Division I portion of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Baseball State Championships with a 13-0 win over Roosevelt in six innings on Tuesday at Les Murakami Stadium.
Saint Louis advanced to face third-seeded Waiakea in a quarterfinal game scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, raising the probability of a duel between two of the state’s top pitchers.
Saint Louis (15-6) moved on in the bracket without having to send right-hander Jordan Yamamoto, a University of Arizona signee, to the mound.
Waiakea (13-1), the BIIF champion, had a bye in the first round with Kodi Medeiros, projected as a possible first-round pick in this summer’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, available to throw on Wednesday.
“It’s a big challenge, no doubt,” Saint Louis coach George Gusman said. “We don’t have much time to get ready for him, but we’ll give it our best shot.
“We don’t have anybody in our league from the left side that throws that hard. We’ll make some adjustments after school (Wednesday) and we’ll figure it out.”
Gusman gave the ball to junior Pono Anderson — himself well established as an effective starter in the Crusaders rotation — for the state tournament opener.
Anderson went to the mound with a five-run lead after the Crusaders opened the game by sending 10 batters to the plate in the top of the first inning. He did his part by scattering four hits over five innings with three strikeouts and no walks.
Peyton Oshiro finished out the shutout in the sixth.
“We just had to come out here and throw strikes and believe in my defense,” Anderson said. “(Saint Louis’ first-inning rally) was a big help. They got more runs after that. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Ryder Kuhns went 3-for-4 and drove in four runs, including Saint Louis’ first of the game, as four of the Crusaders’ top five hitters in the order singled.
Yamamoto, who started in right field, also singled in a run, and Devan Stubblefield followed with a two-run triple into the right-center-field gap.
Stubblefield came in on Brendan Uchima’s sacrifice fly to give Saint Louis a 5-0 lead.
“That was huge,” Gusman said. “We haven’t done that in a long time, so that set the tone.”
Kuhns drove in two more runs in the top of the second. Rayson Romero’s double into shallow right field and Jordan Mopas’ sacrifice fly pushed the Crusaders’ lead to 9-0 in the top of the third.
Roosevelt turned double plays in the fourth and fifth innings to keep the Crusaders off the scoreboard, but Saint Louis reached double digits with a four-run sixth.
The Crusaders strung together five consecutive singles to start the inning, with Kuhns driving in his fourth run of the game and Jacob White dropping a two-run single into left.
At Les Murakami Stadium
ST.L (15-6) 522 004 — 13 5 0
Roosevelt (9-7) 000 000 — 0 5 0
Pono Anderson, Peyton Oshiro (6) and Taylor Meilleur. Reece Okura, Jarron Maemori (3) and Aaron Emoto. W—Anderson. L—Okura.
Leading hitters—StL: Rayson Romero, 2-4, 2B, run, RBI; Jordan Mopas, 2-3, 2B, 2 runs; RBI; Ryder Kuhns, 3-4, 2 runs, 3 RBIs; Devan Stubblefield, 2-3, 3B, run, 2 RBIs. Roos: Emoto 2-3, 2b.
