In a four-day run that featured many great individual performances, Saint Louis won its first state title in 40 years as a team.

Everyone had a hand in the Crusaders’ 10-0 win over Mililani on Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium, capping a brilliant stretch of games by the unseeded team out of the ILH.

In the final, it was Pono Anderson, pitching for the third time in four days, throwing a two-hit shutout.

It was second baseman Tanner Atiburcio, with only two hits all tournament, going 3-for-3 with the big two-run single in the first inning that set the tone for a blowout.

After Anderson committed Saint Louis’ first error in 24 innings this week, shortstop Rayson Romero charged to make a tough double play to back up his pitcher.

It ended with senior Jordan Yamamoto, who outdueled Waiakea’s Kodi Medeiros in one of the best head-to-head pitching matchups in tournament history on Wednesday, lifting a two-run double to left field to win via the 10-run mercy rule.

These Crusaders, just a week after letting the ILH title slip through their grasp, came together when it mattered most, and won coach George Gusman his first state championship in five years as head coach.

"We’ve talked all the time in the regular season about how hard it is to win a baseball game," Gusman said. "Everybody works hard. Everybody is well coached and it comes down to the players making plays when they needed to and fortunately in this tournament, we did."

Saint Louis, which finishes the season 18-6, was ranked No. 1 in the state midway through the season and backed it up winning the ILH regular season.

But then came a stretch that included three consecutive losses to Mid-Pacific. It cost Saint Louis the outright league title and the league’s seeded berth in the state tournament.

As it turned out, however, it wasn’t as bad as it once seemed.

"(Errors) were something we focused on in the ILH postseason versus Mid-Pac because they score on a lot of errors and unfortunately we couldn’t (win it)," first baseman Jordan Mopas said after Thursday’s semifinal win against Campbell. "That first practice (after losing the ILH title) we came together and said we all wanted to win and so we came out this week playing one (game) at a time knowing we had to play good if we wanted to get here."

The Owls have established that reputation as a team under Dunn Muramaru that makes the right play, that doesn’t beat itself, that always finds a way.

It’s why, in what many people thought was a rebuilding year after losing talented players such as Marcus Doi and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, MPI somehow was the No. 1-seeded team in the state tournament.

But this week, with the state championship on the line, Saint Louis was the team playing mistake-free baseball. The Crusaders were the team not giving up freebees or letting in runs on silly mistakes.

Because of that, they were the ones hoisting the koa trophy high into the night sky.

"It was redemption," Atiburcio said. "We worked hard for four years and now this was our chance. A lot of seniors took it to heart that this was our last ride and we did it for them."

As a team.