No. 6 Punahou was not about to let the ILH become a two-team race.
Noah Loughlin’s two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning broke a scoreless tie and Duke Clemens and Kahi Bisho combined on a four-hitter in a 2-0 Buffanblu victory over No. 4 Saint Louis on Tuesday afternoon at Goeas Field.
Clemens, a sophomore offensive lineman on the football team and a post on the basketball team, struck out three in four innings in his first varsity start and Bisho struck out four over the last three innings, facing one over the minimum to pitch Punahou to the win.
“It’s all pitching (in this league),” Punahou coach Keenan Sue said. “On any day you get a Dawson (Yamaguchi) or a (Chase) Meilleur or a (Hunter) Breault or a Bisho throwing and it’s going to be a tough game if they’re on, so everybody is going to beat up on everybody.”
The Buffanblu (5-2) moved into a second-place tie with the Crusaders (5-2) behind Kamehameha (6-1) after their two pitchers got the best of Yamaguchi, who threw a shutout in his only other start this season.
Yamaguchi baffled Punahou for 52⁄3 innings before giving up a double to Loughlin that scored the only runs of the game.
Loughlin, who struck out in each of his previous two at-bats, went hunting at the first offering from Yamaguchi and drove a fastball off the base of the wall in left, allowing Cole Cabrera and Kyson Donahue, who had Punahou’s other two hits, to score.
“Usually when I go up to the bat I’m kind of ready to go after the first pitch,” Loughlin said. “It happened to be there and I just went for it.”
Bisho picked up the win, retiring the last seven batters he faced after giving up a two-out double in the fifth inning to Saint Louis shortstop Keith Torres.
Clemens, who had made only one appearance this season, in the late innings of an 11-1 loss to Kamehameha, allowed three hits and one walk in four innings.
“The great thing about all of our guys that are multi-sport athletes is this is just another sport to them and they just come out and compete,” Sue said. “(Clemens) just throws strikes, is always in the right mind-set, which for a pitcher is everything, and with Duke he doesn’t do too much and just gets out there and pitches. He was the key to today.”
