Before Thursday, the last time Radford walked off the field at Les Murakami Stadium was after a close defeat to Farrington in the OIA Division II championship game on April 21. To coach Jacob Sur, all was not lost and there was more for his team to play for.

Following a 3-2 extra-inning win over Kapaa after a DJ Kabua walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, the Rams are one win away from a state championship.

“That’s what we told the kids — there’s a bigger picture to everything. OIA would’ve been great if we would’ve won it, but there was a bigger picture that we wanted out of the season and everything is set up for tomorrow,” Sur said. “I’m very proud of the kids for working their tails off. After the OIA, they could’ve folded — they had a long layoff.”

Radford returned from an 18-day hiatus with a 6-4 victory over No. 2 seed Kamehameha-Hawaii that went deep into the night at Hans L’Orange Park on Wednesday. Another quick turnaround will be required when the Rams square off against Damien today at 4 p.m. in the Division II championship game.

“I think these guys came into the postseason and we were ready,” Sur said. “We weren’t shell-shocked when we’ve seen high-level talent. We felt within ourselves that we could compete with them.”

Each team mustered just three hits. While Kapaa used three different hurlers on the mound, Radford rode the arm of Richard Akana, who earned the win in an efficient complete-game gem.

Akana said that he didn’t feel like he had best stuff on Thursday, but it was still enough to keep a no-hitter going through five innings.

“I just had to command my fastball and throw my pitches for strikes,” he said. “I had to shut them down with my curveball; my changeup wasn’t working today. I had to trust my defense as well and they had my back today.”

Kapaa leadoff hitter Kade Kupihea was hit by a pitch to start the game and was moved over to second by an Ekolu Rivera sacrifice bunt before stealing third. With two outs, cleanup hitter Kaimi Malina hit a ground ball to third baseman Matt Lukins, who committed an error and allowed Kupihea to score.

Radford tied it up in the second after Kabua’s sacrifice fly scored Damon Nelson from third. The Rams took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning when Carter Ogino’s single scored Daniel May from second.

Kupihea broke up Akana’s no-hit to lead off the sixth. After stealing second, Kupihea was driven in by Rivera’s single to tie the game back up at 2.

The Rams had chances to score in the bottom of the sixth and seventh, but couldn’t capitalize with runners in scoring position. It mattered little to Akana, who kept his pitch count low all afternoon. He was at 74 pitches after seven innings, considerably short of the 110-pitch limit instituted by the HHSAA.

“The score was tied, so I just treated it like 0-0,” he said. “I felt pretty loose. I had confidence in myself and the team had confidence in me to come into the game today and pitch.”

After squandering the lead in the sixth inning, Akana was perfect in the seventh and eighth. The junior finished with one walk with three strikeouts after 85 pitches.

Nainoa Cardinez got the starting nod for the Warriors and was pulled in the third in favor of Kupihea. Kupihea took the loss after 5 2/3 innings of relief with three strikeouts and six walks. He yielded to Kaeo Kamau with two outs in the bottom of the eighth before the game-ending walk was conceded.

Radford now has a chance to bring home its second state championship in baseball and its first since 1979. The Rams will be going up against a Damien team that defeated Farrington.

“We feel pretty loose. (Wednesday) was a pretty hard game, but (Thursday) was a hard game as well. After the relief of winning, we have more confidence in ourselves,” Akana said. “Damien is a pretty good team as well, but we just gotta bring our ‘A’ game.”