USA Today had it right all along.

Maui Interscholastic League champion Baldwin backed up its national ranking for most of the season with its second state championship in three years after rolling Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Waiakea 14-4 in five innings of the Division I final of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Baseball Championships on Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

Haku Dudoit finished 2-for-3 with three runs and three RBIs and Chayce Akaka also scored three times for the Bears, who were ranked No. 24 in the USA Today Super 25 this week.

Baldwin finished its season 16-1 and kept the state title on the Valley Isle for the third straight year after Maui won it a year ago.

“It’s very gratifying because that’s a very good Waiakea team over there,” Baldwin coach Shane Dudoit said. “They helped us out and we were able to capitalize on those situations and get some timely hitting when we needed to.”

Baldwin used a seven-run fifth inning to put the finishing touches on matching the biggest blowout in a Division I state final since the Bears lost to Punahou 13-2 in 2010.

The first nine batters all reached base behind an error and two walks starting the inning.

Haku Dudoit and Nainoa Keahi each added two-run singles as the Bears finished with nine hits in the game — all singles.

“It was very tough,” said Akaka, one of eight starters who were on the state-title-winning team two years ago. “(Waiakea) started off strong. We just kept with it, stuck strong and did what we had to do.”

Waiakea’s Casey Yamauchi singled twice and scored the game’s first run, and sophomore Kala’i Rosario went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, including a run-scoring single in the first inning to put the Warriors up 2-0 and hand Baldwin its first deficit in the tournament.

Seven walks, a hit batter and five errors eventually did in the BIIF champions, who lost their first game of the season to finish 17-1 with a second straight runner-up finish at states.

“A few walks here, a few defensive plays just fell short and (Baldwin) is a great team,” Waiakea coach Rory Inouye said. “They capitalize on things like that.”

Waiakea needed two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to keep the game going after the Bears went ahead 14-3 to put the 10-run mercy rule into play.

Rosario’s second hit of the game scored Trayden Tamiya, who drew a leadoff walk, to make it 14-4.

Akaka, who got the save in the Bears’ semifinal win over ‘Iolani, came in with runners on first and second and needed just two pitches to get the game-ending double play.

“The ability to stay in the games against Punahou and ‘Iolani, I think, in the last two days helped us get over that hump and kept us able and willing to still go through it,” Shane Dudoit said. “Without that game. … I would want to think our guys could do it, but playing those two games helped our guys quite a lot.”

Baldwin beat both ILH teams to get to the final and gave up just 26 total runs in 17 games this season.

“We had a lot of doubt around our program. People thought we were going to go one and done this tournament,” Akaka said. “We proved them wrong, and that’s what we wanted to do — show everybody that Maui has competition and that Maui can compete with others from the outer islands.”