Once again, St. Francis had destiny in its hands.
Once again, Damien averted elimination.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Monarchs third baseman River Iaea snagged a line drive off the bat of Bubba Akana for the final out as Damien escaped with a 4-3 win over the Saints on Thursday afternoon at Hans L’Orange Park.
The teams will meet for an eighth and final time on Saturday for the ILH Division II crown.
Bryce Uyeno got the win and second baseman Kaysen Kajiwara took the mound with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to record the final out, earning a save for Damien (11-7). St. Francis’ three-run rally in the final frame came up just short.
“We got great pitching by Uyeno. A lot of his teammates told him to do the same thing,” Damien coach Timo Donahue said, referring to Uyeno’s six-inning, one-hit shutout of St. Francis just five days earlier. “With Kaysen, all we needed was strikes. Bubba crushed it.”
On Saturday, Uyeno hurled a 1-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and one walk over six innings in an 11-0 win against St. Francis (9-9). This time, he gave up three runs on two hits in six-plus innings with two strikeouts and three walks.
“I felt a little bit tight, but I’ve been stretching all week,” the junior said. “Honestly, it’s our defense catching pop flies and fielding grounders.”
Damien, the ILH D-II tournament winner, got one of the two wins it needs against regular-season winner St. Francis. The Saints need to beat the Monarchs just once. In the same scenario a year ago, Damien battled back through the tourney and won two games in the title series to reach the state tournament.
“Our mantra before each game is that it’s one game at a time,” Donahue said.
Facing Damien reliever Kaimana Cameron, down four runs in the bottom of the seventh, the Saints got a walk by Makana Poole, a single by James Yamasaki and a walk by Zach Alcos to load the bases. Greison Visoria’s sacrifice fly to center brought Poole home for the Saints’ first run. Alek Miyasato then connected on a 1-2 off-speed pitch for a double to left-center, scoring pinch runner Dean Foster from second base.
Freshman Reece Kadota followed with a sacrifice fly to left, plating Alcos to cut the score to 4-3. Cameron then walked Kiyo Perry and pinch hitter Jayden Simpliciano to load the bases. The Monarchs then turned to Kajiwara, who had already delivered a key two-run double earlier.
ILH Division I tournament
‘Iolani 9, Punahou 8
Shaydon Kubo hit a one-out, walk-off single to cap a four-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning and the Raiders advanced to play top seed Mid-Pacific today at 3:30 p.m. at Hans L’Orange Park.
Kubo finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Aaron Ujimori was 4-for-4 with four RBIs for ‘Iolani (14-4-1), which needs to beat Mid-Pacific today and Saturday to win the tournament title and force a Monday playoff for the ILH championship.
The Buffanblu, ranked No. 8 in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Top 10, placed third in the regular season and the league tournament, but also qualified for the Division I state tournament along with No. 2 Mid-Pacific and No. 3 ‘Iolani.
