The Kaiser baseball field could have been renamed Hitter’s Heaven on Wednesday, when the host Cougars pounded out 14 hits on the way to ending Aiea’s season, 9-5.

The two teams combined for 23 hits — five for extra bases — in the Oahu Interscholastic Association baseball tournament game. Kaiser (8-5), under new coach and former major leaguer Kila Ka’aihue, advanced to today’s quarterfinals at No. 1-seeded Campbell against the state’s second-ranked Sabers (12-0).

“I’m excited to see (us against Campbell),” Ka’aihue said after the win. “They’re (seeded) No. 1 for a reason. We want to play the best. The boys are battling and have been playing really good baseball.”

Keoni Pangan and Kennedy Chun fueled the Cougars offense with three hits each in the back-and-forth slugfest. Kaiser trailed twice — 1-0 and 4-3 — before finally pulling away with two runs each in the third, fourth and fifth frames.

“That’s going to be a very tough team to beat,” Aiea coach Ryan Kato said about Kaiser. “They’re really skilled with the bat. They put the bat on the ball. It might not have been blistering hits, but they did enough to find holes.”

With RBI groundouts in the third, Christian Reasoner and Chun gave the Cougars a 5-4 lead that they never relinquished. Antonio Omphroy’s run-scoring single and Kainoa Torres’ RBI fielder’s choice in the fourth made it 7-4 before Kaiser closed out its scoring in the fifth on Pangan’s two-run single.

Na Alii’s spirited comeback attempt failed. Senior Kobe Kato, the starting and losing pitcher, smashed a solo home run to right-center in the top of the fifth, getting his team as close as 7-5. In the same inning, Aiea just missed adding to the total, but courtesy runner Treyton Takamoto was cut down at home on a relay throw while trying to score from second on Logan Ho’s double.

Earlier, during a three-run third that gave Aiea that early 4-3 lead, Bronson Nekomoto was pegged out at the plate on a throw from Cougars center fielder Noah Matsumoto to minimize the damage. All told, four Na Alii runners were wiped off the basepaths in the contest.

Later on, Aiea (5-8) left the bases loaded in the sixth and stranded runners on first and second in the seventh.

“Like I told the boys, we cannot look back,” coach Kato said. “It is what it is. We gave a valiant effort and Kaiser was a better team today. We just couldn’t bring them home. It was a combination of good execution on defense and we ran ourselves out of some innings. That’s baseball. Live and learn and lick our wounds and come back (next year).”

Kaiser right-hander Pono Lyman picked up the win, allowing nine hits and five runs (three earned) with four strikeouts in 51⁄3 innings. Lefty Jakey Nam earned the save with 11⁄3 innings of hitless ball.

The Cougars’ Pangan, a senior captain, talked about his team’s road that continues today.

“Play together and do what we do,” he said, when asked about the big game at Campbell. “From where we were at the beginning of the season until now is a huge difference. We need to play how we usually play. Minimize errors and run the bases a lot better.”

Kobe Kato, who will play at the University of Arizona next season, gave props to Kaiser.

“We made a good run at it,” he said, “We did everything we could and made mental mistakes. Everyone does that; it just happens to be today. They’re a good team. They can hit, can swing the bat and put the ball in play.”