Saint Louis’ Tanner Chun pitched out of trouble over the first four innings, the Crusaders scored all their runs in the fourth and they also overcame an unfortunate final-inning injury Saturday against Kamehameha.
Chun allowed three hits and one run over six innings with seven walks and six strikeouts as Saint Louis held off Kamehameha 3-1 in an ILH game at Central Oahu Regional Park.
“That was a great performance by him,” Saint Louis coach Benny Agbayani said. “He kept them off-balance. He struggled. That’s part of him where he shows his character, and during adversity he can come back and get the batters out.”
Chun stranded seven runners, including five in scoring position, over the first four innings.
“I was trying to make my pitches and do what my coaches were telling me and trying to do it for my team,” he said. “Let them put the ball in play and do my best.”
The Crusaders (7-3) scored in the fourth on Kolby Gushiken’s sacrifice fly, Jadon Murakami’s run-scoring double and another run came in on Murakami’s steal of third and throwing error by the Warriors’ catcher.
“We just wanted to get guys on base and manufacture runs,” Agbayani said.
Saint Louis had a bizarre injury strike in the top of the seventh when reliever Laakea Correa wasn’t paying attention and got hit in the head by a throw-back from the catcher. He left the game after throwing three balls.
Aycen Fernandez entered and got a fly out, but the next batter reached when the Saint Louis first baseman couldn’t stretch to his right come up with a throw from shortstop Sean Yamaguchi.
Kamehameha clean-up hitter Dillon Andres then belted a 1-0 pitch deep to left, but the wind pushed it just wide of the foul pole.
“I thought it was just a routine fly ball,” Fernandez said. “It went farther and farther until (the left fielder) was at the fence. (The umpire) called it foul and after that I felt relieved.”
The runner on first stole second before Andres drew a walk. The runner on second was tagged out in a rundown after attempting to steal and Fernandez got a called third strike to end it.
“I was ready to go,” Fernandez said. “Unfortunate (Correa) got hurt, but it was good at the end. Came in, did good stuff. I’m glad coach sent me out.”
Agbayani said: “Lucky thing we have a pitcher that can come in and finish up the job. That was great for Ayden to come in and get the job done for us.”
The Warriors (7-2) are atop the ILH standings by a half-game over ‘Iolani, Mid-Pacific and Saint Louis.
“Every game is tough. Everyone can beat everybody on any given day,” Kamehameha coach Daryl Kitagawa said. “You need to bring your game and do what you’re supposed to do. You have to execute, you have to hit, you have to play catch. All those things that baseball requires.”
Chun got out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the first against Kamehameha by getting a fly out to right and consecutive strikeouts.
The Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the second when Jace Souza doubled in Kiai Sylvester. Kamehameha had runners at second and third with one out, but Chun got a fly out to right fielder Kaiser Lemau. He fired a strike to catcher Chase Sutherland, who tagged the runner coming down the line to end the inning.
In the third, Kamehameha had runners at the corners and one out, but the batter missed a squeeze bunt on an 0-2 pitch and the runner from third was tagged out by Sutherland to end the threat.
The Warriors had a runner at third with one out in the fourth, but Chun got a strikeout. After an intentional walk to Souza, Chun got an inning-ending groundout to Yamaguchi.
“We expect the kids to execute, but sometimes that’s baseball. The game is hard,” Kitagawa said. “Tanner threw a hell of a game and we tried to do whatever to scratch out runs. We figured it would be low-scoring, so we tried to get one as much as we could. Today, we didn’t do it.”
After getting the lead in the fourth, Chun allowed a walk and hit by pitch over two more scoreless innings. He left after throwing 103 pitches.
ILH
Saturday
Punahou 4, Maryknoll 1
At Ala Wai Field
W—Micah Shintaku. S—Nathan Overbeek.
Leading hitters—Pun: Cade Watson 2-3. Mary: Allin Yap 2-3.
Mid-Pacific 8, Pac-Five 2
At Ala Wai Field
W—Noah Kubo.
Leading hitters—MPI: Chandler Murray 2b, 3 RBIs; Kubo 2 RBIs; Kylan Chun 2 runs; Coen Goeas 2b; Ethan Yonemura 3b.
Saint Louis 3, Kamehameha 1
At Central Oahu Regional Park Field
W—Tanner Chun. S—Aycen Fernandez.
Leading hitters—StL: Kaili Kane 2b. KS: Jace Souza 2-3, 2b.
‘Iolani 14, Damien 0, 5 inn.
At ‘Iolani
W—Kaysen Abara.
Leading hitters—Iol: Judah Ota 3-3, 2b, HR, 3 runs, 6 RBIs; Cole Ide 2-2, 2b, 3 RBIs; Treyden Chong Kee 2-3, 2 runs, 3 RBIs; Isaac Ahokovi 2 runs.
OIA EAST
Saturday
Kaiser 11, Castle 0, 5 inn.
At Castle
W—Caynen Kamagi.
Leading hitters—Kais: Noah Sham 2b, 2 RBIs; Davin Oshiro 2-4, 2 runs; Caleb Hamasaki 3-3, 2 runs, 3 RBIs; Jayden Iwanaka 2-3, 3b, 2 RBIs. Cast: Ryden Yoshikawa.
Moanalua 6, Kalani 3
At Kahala Field
W—Dakota Pagente. S—Kaiden Sonoda Fukumoto.
Leading hitters—Moan: Hunter Nishina 2b, 2 RBIs; Reyn Ikenaga 2b. Kaln: Micah Friel 2 RBIs; Cameron Kobayashi 3-3, 2b; Rex Nakamura 2b.
Roosevelt 4, Farrington 0
At Stevenson Intermediate School
W—Nathaniel Kurano (no-hitter, four walks, nine strikeouts)
Leading hitter—Roos: M. Dot 2 RBIs.
OIA WEST
Saturday
Campbell 7, Pearl City 4
At Campbell
W—Vaden Sabino.
Leading hitters—Camp: Slade Sarono 2 runs, 2 RBIs; Hunter Lindsey 2-4, 2b, 2 RBIs. PC: Ethan Higashionna 2-3, 2 runs; Noah Bernal HR, 2 RBIs; Ian Wicklund 3-3, 2b.
Aiea 13, Nanakuli 2, 5 inn.
At Nanakuli
W—Aidan Yoshida.
Leading hitters—Aiea: Kylan Kono 2-3, 3b, 2 runs, 3 RBIs; Ryen Abe 2 RBIs; Brennan Panis 2-4, 2 RBIs; Bostan Ujimori 2-2, 2b, 2 runs, 2 RBIs; Zion Ishikawa 3 runs. Nan: Jordan Kay 2-2, 3b.
OIA DIVISION II
Saturday
Kalaheo 11, McKinley 1, 5 inn.
At Kailua District Park field
W—Lucas O’Brien.
Leading hitters—Kalh: Tanner Young 2-4, 2 RBIs; Andrew Taylor 3b, 3 runs, 3 RBIs; O’Brien 2 RBIs; Michael Pavich 2b.
Waianae 6, Radford 2
At Radford
W—Cayzen Rice (4 1/3 innings, nine strikeouts)
Leading hitters—Wain: Kai Keesee 2b, 2 runs. Rad: Mateo Tauanuu 2-2, 2b.
Friday
Kahuku 12, Kaimuki 1, 6 inn.
At Kahuku
W—Cayden Castillo. S—Orion Ramie.
Leading hitters—Kah: Hezekiah Colburn 2 runs; Malakai Vendiola 2-3, HR, 4 RBIs; Carson Fenn 2 RBIs; Mason Vargas 2b, 2 runs.
