LIHUE >> St. Francis was looking upward all night and finished this special season in emphatic fashion Saturday.

The Saints, who will watch their school end its existence at the end of May, kept their heads up all spring and finished it off with a 10-4 victory over Waimea in the Division II final of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Baseball Championships.

They were also looking toward the heavens from the finely manicured field at Vidinha Stadium, accomplishing their goal of not only winning their first state crown but also doing it for team grandmother Nora Nakahara, who died Saturday morning after a long fight with cancer.

Nakahara went to every one of her grandson Reece Kadota’s games until she couldn’t get there at all this year. Saturday morning, coach Kip Akana got the sense that she got her ticket to heaven just so she could see this most important one.

“We know that this was her way of not missing out on the biggest game of her grandson’s career,” he said.

The outcome was never a sure thing, however. The fourth-seeded Menehunes (9-5-1) fought back from a five-run deficit to make it 6-4, thus putting on hold that icing on the cake of St. Francis’ 95-year history.

But right after Lacin Montemayor swatted a three-run homer to left for Waimea in the sixth, the Saints (16-5) charged right back to cool the KIF champions’ jets. And that final blow from the third-seeded squad came from none other than Kadota, who slapped a two-run single to center in the bottom half of a four-run sixth to boost the lead to 10-4.

Earlier, St. Francis galloped to a 4-1 lead with a four-run third, thanks to three Menehunes errors. All told, Waimea had six errors, and that came on the heels of an errorless 4-1 semifinal victory over Kamehameha-Hawaii on Friday. Only five of the Saints’ runs were earned.

Right-hander Brayden Nomura fanned eight batters and gave up five hits in the complete-game pitching win.

At the plate, the Saints’ Makana Poole had another hot outing with two doubles, a sacrifice, three stolen bases, an RBI and two runs scored. James Yamasaki, the winning pitcher in an 11-1 win over Radford in the semifinals Friday, went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

“These boys had a lot to play for,” coach Akana said. “It was going to be virtually impossible to defeat these guys. They were playing for the closing of the school, their last game in that uniform, the last time with their teammates and coaches. They were playing for the last of the last sports at St. Francis. And more importantly, they were playing for Granny and the only way she could have come and watched this game — because she wouldn’t miss it; we know her — was to go get her wings today and we’re grateful. They were willing to die out there today.”