The top five teams in this week’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser Top 10 in baseball all come from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu.
Maryknoll is making a case it should be more than that.
The incredible depth of talent that fills the league this year was on display at Goeas Field on Thursday. No. 1 Saint Louis, which suffered its first loss of the season on Tuesday to Kamehameha, played the unranked Spartans to a 2-2 tie that was called after eight innings due to darkness.
The game was played under protest by Saint Louis (2-1-1) after an incident in the top of the second inning.
Regardless of the outcome of the protest, the Spartans (3-0-1) are one of only two teams in the ILH yet to suffer a defeat.
Saint Louis coach George Gusman, who last led the Crusaders to an ILH championship in 2017 and a state title in ’14, said the league is as deep as he’s ever seen, but it isn’t surprising.
“We saw this coming for a while,” Gusman said. “A lot of these guys have played on the mainland — have played against high-caliber players — so they are much more skilled than they ever were.”
The league hasn’t played a full season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, since 2019, when Alaka‘i Aglipay took over as interim, and then eventual head coach of the Spartans.
Maryknoll was just 12-48 in league play since making the jump to Division I in 2016, but looks poised to make a playoff push with a team that includes two Division I signees and a good number of pitchers capable of getting outs in big moments, as evidenced by Thursday’s tie.
“We’ve seen the work that these guys have put (in) in the fall, the summer time, early spring, and they’re unproven,” Aglipay said. “So to see them handle what they did now, it’s like, ‘OK, I think we can roll with this’ and it’s a big confidence-booster for these guys.”
Saint Louis got the leadoff runner on base in six of the eight innings, but could only capitalize on Xander Sielken’s two-out RBI single in the third inning and a sacrifice bunt for an RBI by junior Ryder Okimoto in the bottom of the sixth.
Maryknoll used four pitchers in the game who combined to give up just one hit in 14 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
The Spartans also turned three double plays, including one in the bottom of the eighth after a one-out walk, ending the game.
“We had a number of opportunities, but guys got a little too excited at the plate,” Gusman said. “They tried to see things that were not there and it’s something they need to grow from.”
The first five batters of the game reached base on three singles and two HBPs for Maryknoll, but two outs on the base paths allowed the Spartans to score only one run, on Noah Nakaoka’s infield single in the hole between short and third.
Noah Hata gave Maryknoll a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth, battling back from an 0-2 count to pull a solo homer over the right field fence.
Saint Louis’ Spencer Rego threw four scoreless innings of relief, allowing three hits while striking out six.
Maryknoll’s Matthew Miura, a University of Hawaii signee, took over as a reliever from his center field spot in the bottom of the seventh inning with the tying run on third and one out.
Jacob Remily made a diving stop of a grounder at first base to save the winning run and then Miura got a strikeout looking to end the threat.
“In all of these tough moments, we can’t break. We can’t be moved by the big moments and we need to respond in a big way,” Aglipay said. “They came in, struck a guy out, made a diving play and there’s a lot of big moments in this game we can look back on and build off of.”
Sielken, a University of Hawaii commit, reached base in all four plate appearance for the Crusaders. Hata, who will play college baseball at Hawaii Pacific, scored both runs and was 2-for-5 to lead Maryknoll.
