Ezekiel Ribuca couldn’t see anything happening behind him, but teammate Sean Yamaguchi had a clear view of an ILH championship right in front of him.

Yamaguchi took off from third on Ribuca’s grounder to short and slid in safely with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning to give Saint Louis a 4-3 win over ‘Iolani on Friday to win the ILH baseball championship at Central Oahu Regional Park.

Saint Louis (14-3-1), the ILH regular season champion, earned the league’s seeded berth in next week’s state tournament by beating ILH tournament champion ‘Iolani (10-12), which won six consecutive must-win games in the tourney to reach the ILH title tilt.

Nu’u Contrades hit a two-run homer and Aiva Arquette tied the game with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings.

Yamaguchi, who walked to lead off the bottom of the eighth, reached third on Imiloa Koka’s one-out single. Ribuca followed with a grounder to short. ‘Iolani played its infield in and had a play at the plate but the throw was wide allowing Yamaguchi to score to give Saint Louis its second consecutive ILH crown.

“I told coach (George) Gusman I’m going for it,” Yamaguchi said. “I wanted to win this game and I felt confident where I was. I got out on the pitch and I saw the ball hit the ground and I just went for it.”

The Saint Louis dugout emptied as soon as Yamaguchi was ruled safe with most of the team running out to celebrate with Ribuca, who wasn’t sure what had happened.

“I just hit the ball and ran it out after,” Ribuca said. “I didn’t look back.”

The victory gave Saint Louis its fifth ILH championship this academic year, including the triple crown of football, boys basketball and baseball. That hadn’t happened since Saint Louis accomplished the feat in 1967, when head coach George Gusman was a sophomore.

“It’s hard, but that was not what we were after,” Gusman said. “We just wanted to be one run better than (‘Iolani) and fortunately, that’s all it was.”

Contrades’ two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning accounted for all of the runs scored until the final two innings.

Saint Louis starter Spencer Rego retired 14 consecutive batters until his pitch grazed the jersey of Cole Yonamine to start the seventh.

After a walk and a sacrifice bunt, pinch hitter Cole Ide lifted a two-run single to center to tie the game.

Travis Ujimori followed with a single to center and after a lengthy mound visit, Gusman decided to leave Rego in the game, who then gave up a first-pitch single to Bruin Agbayani to drive in Rylen Miyasaki for a 3-2 ‘Iolani lead.

“We’re up two and then we hit a batter, we just nick him to put him on, and then all hell breaks loose. It was just incredible.” Gusman said. “For us to come back was even more incredible. (We showed) the heart of a champion.”

Saint Louis was down to its final out in the bottom of the seventh when Xander Sielken reached on a throwing error that would have ended the game.

Contrades was hit by a pitch to put the tying run on second for Arquette, who was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before singling over the head of the third baseman to force extra innings.

‘Iolani left runners on first and second in the top of the eighth before Saint Louis won it.

“They battled to the end,” ‘Iolani coach Kurt Miyahira said. “They earned the right to feel this way. We’re blessed for the opportunity to go to Maui and compete again and we’ll lay it all out there again.”

Rego finished with seven strikeouts in 62⁄3 innings. ‘Iolani starter Trent Ihle gave up two earned runs in 62⁄3 innings with five strikeouts.

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Saint Louis 4, ‘Iolani 3, 8 inn.

WP—Kahiau Schenk. LP—Izack Takasawa.

Leading hitters—StL: Xander Sielken 2 runs; Nu’u Contrades 2-2, HR, 2 RBIs; Makamae DuPont 2-2. Iol: Jonah Velasco 2-4, run.