Bubba Akana’s bat and Brayden Nomura’s pressure pitching pushed St. Francis to a 6-4 ILH Division II baseball victory over Damien on Thursday at Central Oahu Regional Park.

With the game teetering on the line, Nomura pitched his way out of trouble in the sixth and seventh innings to earn the save.

“It was a lot of pressure, but honestly, it felt amazing,” Nomura said. “It was my moment. I really wanted to beat them and I had to do my job.”

The Monarchs (0-5) pushed hard, loading the bases in the sixth with one out and putting runners on the corners in the seventh. In the sixth, Nomura hit the outside corner to get Jonathan Motas swinging and then got River Iaea to fly out to right. In the final frame with two out, he induced a comebacker to the mound by Kyle Kinney to end it.

“I don’t expect anything less from a Damien-St. Francis game,” Saints coach Kip Akana said. “Back and forth. Both teams know it’s going to be a seven-inning game. It’s always an awesome thing to be a part of. I’m going to miss this the most, the Damien-St. Francis games.”

The Saints (3-1) are trying to go out with a bang, with the school closing down in a matter of months, and Bubba Akana did some slam-banging of the baseball. He went 3-for-4 with two triples of about 350 and 370 feet to left-center, and he drove in three crucial runs.

“Man, he’s an all-star and it’s an honor to play with him,” Nomura said. “I haven’t known him for long, but it feels like we’re family already.”

Nomura came in for winning pitcher Darian Kamibayashi, who gave up the four runs (two earned) and scattered seven hits in five innings. Motas, the losing pitcher, also went five innings and allowed seven hits.

In the first inning, James Yamasaki’s two-run single gave St. Francis the lead before the Monarchs tied it at 2 after two innings, thanks in part to Kaysen Kajiwara’s RBI hit.

With Makana Poole’s run-scoring double in the third, the Saints regained the lead 3-2, and they made it 5-2 when the first of the two Akana triples sent two runners home in the fifth.

Damien made it a one-run game at 5-4 on Anthony Arecchi’s two-run single in the bottom half of the fifth before Akana’s next triple, this time with a runner on in the seventh, boosted the St. Francis lead to 6-4.

With two on in the sixth, some Kinney baserunning magic gave the Monarchs hope. He danced around and avoided a tag on a fielder’s choice to third and ended up safe when Yamasaki, the Saints’ third baseman, dropped the ball. But Damien could not get him or the runners behind him home.

“We gotta learn to finish,” Kinney said. “We gotta keep the same energy for seven innings no matter what. I made it hard for him to tag me out. I had that ‘I don’t want to get out’ mentality. When I saw the ball fly out of his glove, I booked it to third.”

Said Monarchs coach Timo Donahue: “One play here and there can change things. We just didn’t get the hits when we had guys on base. They did. It was just a matter of missing pitch location on those Akana hits. It’s a lesson to learn for our pitchers.”