Kamehameha’s rise toward the top of ILH baseball continued in a major way Tuesday at Hans L’Orange Park.

The Warriors (13-7) dropped Saint Louis 5-4 to capture the league’s postseason tournament and advance to today’s overall championship game against regular-season winner Punahou.

Even though the Crusaders (16-5) came up short, they will join Kamehameha and the Buffanblu in the Division I state tournament on Maui next week. Today’s 4:30 p.m. winner at Hans L’Orange will get a seeded berth and a first-round bye on the Valley Isle.

All three ILH teams are ranked in the top six of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Top 10. Saint Louis is No. 2, with Punahou at No. 3 and Kamehameha at No. 6, behind No. 1 Baldwin of the MIL.

“We were fortunate to come out on top,” Warriors first-year head coach Daryl Kitagawa said. “It was pressure packed the whole way. Saint Louis is a quality ballclub. We’ll be playing for it (league championship) tomorrow, so we will be trying to keep the kids grounded and have fun doing it — staying in the moment and not get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Closer Christian DeJesus shut the door with one inning of scoreless relief for the save. Kapono Rawlins also threw one inning to keep the Warriors ahead and preserve the win for lefty starter Javyn Pimental.

Trailing by two, the Crusaders scratched for a run to cut it to 5-4 on Hunter Peneueta’s sacrifice fly in the sixth, but they left a man on third base. They also put a runner on third against DeJesus in the seventh, but could not tie it up.

“Christian has been here three years,” Kitagawa said. “He’s one of our guys and he has the right to be out there to close. I gave my big guy the ball. I’m happy he came through for him and the whole team.”

For Saint Louis coach George Gusman, the team’s inability to score late was not the problem.

“We put guys on with a walk or we hit ’em,” he said. “They scored two runs on passed balls. That was the ballgame right there. We clutched up a bunch of times. You can’t give away runs like that and play at a high caliber. It’s disappointing to shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Gusman thought his squad had what it takes to head to the state tournament with the league title in hand.

“We were ready,” he added. “And now, having to play four games instead of three, we don’t have that huge advantage.”

Kamehameha’s first two runs came via passed balls before Kaeden Shim doubled and scored on Dante Park’s groundout for a 3-2 edge in the third.

In the bottom of the fourth, Makana Ontai tripled and Peneueta followed with a double to put the Crusaders into a 3-all tie.

“We came out swinging, but we came up short,” said Ontai, whose RBI double keyed a two-run second inning for a temporary 2-1 Saint Louis edge.

In the top of the fifth, Kamehameha got what it needed, rallying to make it 5-3 on Beau Sylvester’s run-scoring triple and Hanu Racoma’s RBI single that goes in the books as the winning hit.

With Saint Louis’ Cole Kashimoto on third with two out in the seventh, DeJesus sealed it by getting Mathew Saelua swinging at strike three.

“I figured I was either going to give up a hit or I was going to get a K or the defense was going to do something,” DeJesus said. “I wanted to put it in the zone and make sure to not walk him.”