The third-place team in the MIL regular season is one of the last two standing in state Division I.
Unseeded Maui, whose only previous state final appearance was a championship in 1982, scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to come from behind and knock off OIA runner-up Campbell 6-4 in the second Division I semifinal of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Baseball Championships at Les Murakami Stadium on Friday night.
Jyrah Lalim hit the go-ahead, two-run double and first baseman Mikito Barkman pitched the final four innings to earn the win for Maui (13-5), which faces Waiakea for the title in the first all-neighbor-island final since the Warriors beat Baldwin in 2012.
“In the middle of the season we had to reflect on ourselves and what we needed to do to get better,” said Maui coach Chase Corniel, whose team finished behind both Baldwin and Kamehameha-Maui in the MIL. “We’re making the adjustments and (the kids) want to be up there. That’s the main thing. They want to be up there swinging the bat, and if they have that approach they can win the battle every time.”
The Maui Sabers were the hottest team at the plate in the tournament with 20 runs in two games, including an 8-6 win over No. 1 seed Saint Louis on Thursday night.
Campbell left-hander Ayzek Silva held the Sabers in check through 51⁄3 innings with seven strikeouts and just two walks allowed.
A double by Waylon Golis-Bacos and single by Barkman forced Campbell coach Rory Pico to bring in reliever Darien Robinson, who had thrown only 41⁄3 innings this season.
Orrion Suda’s single made it a 4-3 game and Kaipo Paschoal singled to set the stage for Lalim, the Sabers’ No. 9 hitter.
Lalim came up first-pitch swinging and drilled a two-run double to left to give the Sabers their first and only lead of the game.
“We look for small, contact hits and the big ones will come,” Lalim said. “Coach said to look for something small and give it a rip and I went for the fences and it went.”
Micah Jio added an RBI groundout for a 6-4 lead and Barkman closed the deal with a perfect seventh inning.
As a bonus, he recorded the final out on his 35th pitch, meaning he can throw 75 pitches in tonight’s final under the new pitch-count rules.
If he had thrown one more, he would have been ineligible to throw. Barkman got through the last three innings needing just 20 pitches.
“That was the best I’ve ever seen him throw,” Corniel said. “The bottom line was we had to make a decision yesterday on when to use Mikito and bottom line was the boy wanted to pitch and wanted the ball. He needed to be that anchor to come in and shut the door.”
Markus Ramos tripled home a run in the first inning for a 2-0 lead and a throwing error and sacrifice fly put Campbell ahead 4-1 in the fourth.
The Sabers finished with three hits.
“Their pitchers kept us off balance and they clutched up when they needed to,” Pico said. “(Barkman) was a little more firm and throwing an offspeed pitch around the zone that kept us off balance. He did a good job.”
HHSAA DIVISION I BASEBALL
Maui 6, Campbell 4
At Les Murakami Stadium
>> Campbell (16-2) 200 200 0 — 4 3 1
>> Maui (13-5) 100 014 X — 6 8 1
Ayzek Silva, Darien Robinson (6) and Todd Takahama. Jarnesky Haoa, Mikito Barkman (4) and Bryant Nakagawa. W—Barkman. L—Robinson.
Leading hitters—Camp: Markus Ramos 1-3, 3b, RBI. Maui: Barkman 2-3; Waylon Golis-Bacos 1-3, 2b, RBI; Jyrah Lalim 1-2, 2b, 2 RBIs; Micah Jio 1-2, run, 2 RBIs.
Waiakea 2, Kamehameha 0
At Les Murakami Stadium
>> Waiakea (17-2) 100 000 1 — 2 3 1
>> KSK (16-7) 000 000 0 — 0 7 0
David Nakamura and Curren Inouye. Hunter Breault and Dylan Salcedo. W—Nakamura. L—Breault.
Leading hitters—Waik: Nakamura 1-3, RBI. KSK: Salcedo 2-2.
5th place semifinals
>> Saint Louis 9, Hilo 2
>> Kailua 7, Baldwin 2
Consolation semifinal
>> Moanalua 7, Kalani 3
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