Punahou routs Baldwin for baseball title

By Fred Guzman

MauiNow.com

This one was over before Baldwin ever even came to the plate on Saturday night. Punahou erupted for 10 runs in the top of the first inning and romped to a 13-2 win over the hometown Bears to capture its seventh straight state baseball championship.

It took the Bears three pitchers to get out of the first, silencing a partisan crowd of more than 2,000 at Iron Maehara Stadium.

The loss ended third-seeded Baldwin’s season at 26-4, while unseeded Punahou closed out yet another championship campaign at 22-7-1.

Three Baldwin players were named to the all-tournament team: first baseman Brock Shishido, second baseman Kaulana Ching and left-handed pitcher Chase Tokunaga, who was the winning hurler in Baldwin’s 5-2 semifinal victory over top-seeded Saint Louis.

Meantime, second-seeded St. Anthony had to settle for a fourth-place finish in the Division-II tournament held concurrently at Hans L’Orange Field in Waipahu. The Trojans opened with a 15-3 rout of Campbell before losing 9-2 to eventual champion Waimea in the semis and 12-3 to HPA in the third-place game.

Named to the D-II all-tourney team were two St. Anthony players: outfielder Trevor Ventura and Jarret Stinger as a utility man.

In water polo, the fourth seeded Lahainaluna girls opened with a 6-5 win over Roosevelt before losing 16-1 to eventual champion Punahou in the semis and 8-4 to Kahuku in the third-place match.