Greyson Osbun fired a one-hitter as No. 1 Kamehameha edged No. 2 Saint Louis 2-0 to keep the logjam atop the ILH baseball standings in place.
Saint Louis’ Kaili Kane spoiled the no-hit bid with a single in the top of the seventh with two outs.
“Our defense was awesome. No errors, I believe. Our guys made some great catches,” Osbun said after his masterpiece.
Kamehameha (10-4) shares first place with Mid-Pacific and ‘Iolani.
Saint Louis dropped to 9-4 and plays Maryknoll on Saturday with a chance to turn the three-way tie into a four-way mess as the regular season closes. The Crusaders’ opportunity to take control of first place slipped away with miscues in the midst of a mesmerizing pitchers’ duel between Osbun and Shannon Fee.
The Saint Louis right-hander had batters frozen as he delivered his 12-6 curveball with precision. However, in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Warriors got on the scoreboard. Kaulana Quinlan was hit by a high fastball, then advanced to second base when a pickoff throw by Fee went astray.
Jayden Montero then hit an opposite-field single to right, scoring Quinlan for the game’s first run. Montero stole second base, and on his attempt to steal third, the throw sailed into left field, and Montero scored easily for a 2-0 Kamehameha lead.
That was more than enough for Osbun, who struck out seven and walked two. He seemed to thrive in the drizzly conditions.
“Just coming out here knowing we had to win tonight, pretty much, to cause chaos, trying to get first place and the bid into states,” Osbun said. “We’re not going to have guys hitting out of the park. We’re going to bunt to get on, bunt to get guys over. We’re going to steal, work off the errors they give us. That’s how we play baseball.”
Fee allowed one earned run on six hits, fanned eight and walked two in six innings.
“Our guy did his job,” Kamehameha coach Daryl Kitagawa said of Osbun. “Tonight he just went with the plan and it worked out for him. Hat’s off to him. It was a typical Saint Louis-Kamehameha kind of game. We got lucky. We’re blessed and fortunate to come away with the win tonight.”
At CORP
Saint Louis (9-4) 000 000 0 — 0 1 5
Kamehameha (10-4) 000 002 x — 2 6 1
Shannon Fee and Chase Sutherland. Greyson Osbun and Bruce Boucher, Taj Uyehara. W—Osbun. L—Fee.
Leading hitters—STL: Kaili Kane 1-2. KS: Jayden Montero 2-3, RBI, run; Dillon Andres 2-3.