Baldwin Completes Perfect Regular-Season Run

By Fred Guzman

Baldwin lived up to its advance billing as a baseball favorite by completing a perfect run through the MIL regular-season.

The Bears swept a three-game weekend series against second-place Kamehameha-Maui to finish with a 12-0 mark in the league. The Warriors closed at 6-6 after suffering an 8-5 loss in eight innings in Saturday’s regular-season finale at Iron Maehara Stadium.

Baldwin, the reigning state runner-up and ranked third in the most recent state-wide poll conducted by the Star-Advertiser, has already assured itself of a berth in the state Division-I tournament.

But the Bears need to take the overall league title in order to earn the MIL’s seeded berth on Oahu.

The MIL event begins Wednesday at Maehara Stadium when fifth-place Lahainaluna tangles with fourth-place King Kekaulike in a battle of D-I opponents.

The winner of that game will meet Baldwin in Thursday’s semifinals. Kamehameha will face third-place Maui High in the other semifinal, to be held on Friday. The D-I tournament final is set for Saturday.

The D-II tournament begins with a pair of semifinal games on Thursday, with first-place Molokai facing Lanai at Maehara Stadium and second-place Seabury Hall testing St. Anthony at the Maui High diamond. Both games are scheduled for 3:30 starts.

Molokai led the D-II standings with a 5-1 record. Seabury Hall second at 4-2. St. Anthony was third at 2-4 with Lanai in the cellar at 1-5.

The D-II title game is set for 6 p.m. Friday at Maehara Stadium.

Live coverage of the MIL baseball tournaments will be aired on Maui’s ESPN 550.

SOCCER: Congratulations to Baldwin’s Nathan Fernandez. The senior midfielder was the only MIL player to earn all-state first team honors by the Star-Advertiser. Baldwin defender Anthony Barboza and King Kekaulike’s Logan Bantilan were named to the second team. Earlier, Bantilan was named MIL player of the year  in a survey conducted by the Maui News. He was joined on the all-MIL first team by Barboza and Fernandez. Other all-MIL first team picks were: Baldwin’s Dean Phillips and Leo Fayt, Lahainaluna’s Jorge Hernandez and Elton Rivera, Keakulike’s Shanti Holland and Taylor DeGuerra, Seabury Hall’s Conner Snow, Kamehameha-Maui’s Keola Felipe, and St. Anthony’s Chris Maeda.