For the second year in a row, a bruising ILH schedule prepared Damien for a run to a Division II state baseball championship.

The sweeter part about this one? It came at home.

Francis O’Connor’s third RBI of the night drove in Jamieson Pabalan to give the Monarchs a 6-5 lead and Pabalan made sure it stood with 51⁄3 shutout innings of relief to beat Kauai by the same score to claim the Division II final of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Baseball Championships on Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

Pabalan retired the last seven batters he faced and scored three runs for Damien (6-11), which matched its regular-season total in wins in the state tournament.

“Playing in front of the home crowd this year, there’s something special about that,” Pabalan said. “This was also special playing my senior season and this being my last game.”

Don’t be fooled by the record. The Monarchs ended their regular season by beating Saint Louis to keep the Crusaders from winning the regular-season title in Division I.

Damien had lost 10 in a row before winning its final five games.

“We had those three weeks off to use what we learned from the ILH and prepare for these three games in May as the boys like to say,” Damien coach Skyler Tengan said. “We have a good feeling about the work we put in and of course you have to feel a little confident going into this tournament.”

Pabalan, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, entered the game with the bases loaded with two outs in the third inning trailing 4-1. He walked in Kauai’s fifth run before getting out of the inning.

That was it for the Red Raiders (14-2), as Pabalan allowed only three hits the rest of the way. He finished with three walks and two strikeouts and didn’t allow another runner to reach base after getting an inning-ending double play in the fifth.

“I knew eventually I was going to get into the game. I didn’t know the situation was going to be as crazy as that,” Pabalan said. “I just had to stay within myself and take it one pitch at a time and trust what I have and trust the defense behind me.”

Damien went with two other pitchers who gave up five runs in the first 1 2/3 innings. Tengan said the plan was for Pabalan, who had pitched two days prior, to try to finish out the game, but he had to go to him early.

“He wanted the ball to start, but he threw on Wednesday,” Tengan said. “We didn’t want the game to get out of hand, so we just brought him in to right the ship and he was able to do it for the rest of the game.”

The first three innings took more than 80 minutes as Kauai scored all five of its runs in the second inning.

O’Connor, who finished 2-for-3, doubled in two runs in a four-run third inning to tie the game. His go-ahead, two-out RBI single to right in the fourth inning stood as the game-winning hit.

“Honestly I did not expect the game to be like that,” O’Connor said. “I thought one team was going to scratch and then the other team was going to come back. I had no idea that would be the deciding hit.”

Damien’s top of the order did the majority of the damage, with Pabalan reaching base via two walks and a hit.

Nainoa Begonia bunted for a base hit down the third-base line and OJ Yoshida tripled inside the bag to pull the Monarchs within a run and then scored on Aaron Rapoza’s sacrifice bunt to tie it in the third inning.

Radon Sebastian doubled home a run, drew two walks and scored on Joshua Rego’s base hit to put Kauai up 5-1 in the second inning.

The Red Raiders were trying to win their fourth Division II state title overall and first since 2017.

“It was a battle between two teams that went back and forth,” Kauai coach Spencer Yates said.

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WALLY YONAMINE FOUNDATION/HHSAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Division II

Third Place Game

Waipahu 9, Waianae 0

W—Kawika Mendoza. L—Austin Jackson-Anderson. S—Iokua Kahaleua.

Leading hitters–Waipahu: Donald Miller 2-4, 2 runs; Kamden Takanobu 2-4, 2 RBI;-Chase Maruyama 2-4, run. Waianae: Xavier Quismondo 2-3.

Consolation Game

Konawaena 6, Kahuku 2 (6 inn.)