Devin Fujino singled home Tyler Oshiro with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning Tuesday as Pearl City surprised Aiea 3-2 in the opening round of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Baseball Division I State Championships at Les Murakami Stadium.

“It’s throwing strikes, mixing it up. I used my curveball a lot today,” said Fujino, who started on the mound and pitched five innings before moving to right field. “We knew coming into states that the records are wiped clean. We’re both 0-0. We had nothing to lose. Nobody’s looking at us as a big threat. We just had to play our hearts out and leave it all out there today.”

Aiea (12-4)was this season’s Oahu Interscholastic Association runner-up. Pearl City (9-8) was the fifth-place team. Coach Duane Eldredge and staff exercised patience with a team that had its share of ups and downs coming into the tourney.

“Our goal from the very get-go ever since we lost that first game to Mililani was to the boys, it doesn’t matter where we are now. We just have to be at our best when we get to the end of the season,” Eldredge said. “The boys are coming up now. Are we there yet? We’re playing a lot better.”

Pearl City lost both of its regular-season matchups with Aiea, 7-2 and 10-5, as Na Alii finished first in the OIA West.

“We talked about that the whole season. We kind of fell flat in the regular season, but in the playoffs we were kind of showing more life,” Fujino said. “We had the energy up in the dugout. I think that really helped us. We’re really a momentum-based team. When we have our highs, they’re really up there, but our lows are pretty low. Our mentality is we don’t care who the other team is, just keep the energy up.”

Pearl City was flawless defensively without an error. Aiea committed four.

“It’s nice being the underdog, but in the state tournament everybody’s good, so we have to play good ball,” Eldredge said.

Pearl City got outstanding efforts from four pitchers, including Fujino. The 6-foot-2 left-hander allowed two runs on five hits in his five innings, struck out five and walked two. Noah Bernal threw three scoreless innings, followed by Jase Lorenzo and the eventual winning pitcher, Noah Kia, who threw one inning.

“They’re all different. Fujino’s our lefty who’s 6-2. He basically gave Aiea trouble the last time we played them, so we decided to go with him again. Bernal’s been kind of our ace, our go-to guy,” Eldredge said. “Lorenzo’s been our get-out-of-the inning guy. He has this awkward motion and messes people up. Doesn’t throw very hard. Kia comes back with a little more velocity, more of a three-quarter (motion) guy. We don’t have a guy who can go seven innings so we’re going to mix them up and use their strengths.”

The Chargers began the bottom of the 11th with a one-out walk issued to Oshiro by Aiea’s fourth pitcher, Dylan Wong. Ethan Higashionna then doubled in the right-center gap on a ball that was nearly caught on a diving attempt.

Wong had the count 0-2 on Fujino when the southpaw slapped an outside-corner pitch the opposite way, scoring Oshiro from second base for the win.

Aiea was one of the hottest teams in the state during the regular season, but struggled defensively in postseason. They had six errors in the OIA championship game and four on Tuesday — and still had opportunities to win. Na Alii stranded 11 baserunners.

“They gave it their all. We stuck with the game plan,” Aiea coach Brennan Alejo said. “We had our chances. We had too many guys left on base (11), and from there, it’s a ticking time bomb.”

Aiea went to work early with a classic, station-to-station run in the top of the first. Leadoff batter Ryen Abe walked, advanced to second base on Kylan Kono’s sacrifice bunt, then hustled to third on a fly ball to right by Brennen Panis. Bostan Ujimori then slapped a 1-1 pitch to center, plating Abe.

Aiea scored its second run in the top of the fifth. With one out, Abe’s line drive to left field was misplayed by Jayson Au Hoy and rolled to the warning track. Au Hoy appeared to lose sight of the ball due to the late-afternoon sun.

Abe scored standing up on the play, ruled a home run by the official scorer.

After setting the Chargers down 1-2-3 in the fifth, Aiea starter Aidan Yoshida ran into trouble in the sixth. After Fujino socked a one-out double, Yoshida was replaced by Panis, who surrendered a single to Logan Honma. The throw back to the infield was delayed, allowing Honma to reach second base, giving the Chargers two runners in scoring position.

Bernal then singled to center, scoring both runners to tie the game. Panis filled the bases by walking one batter and plunking the next, but got Jace Noda to pop out and end the inning.