Bears, Farmers Bounced in State Semifinals

By Fred Guzman

First, Baldwin. Then, Molokai High The MIL’s two champions were knocked out of their respective semifinal games in the state high school baseball tournaments at Les Murakami Stadium.

On Friday night, third-seeded Baldwin made things interesting down the stretch but its comeback bid fell short in a 4-3 loss to second-seeded Moanalua in a Division-I game.

Moanalua will meet Pearl City in tonight’s 7 o’clock final in an all-OIA affair. The Chargers advanced on a last-ining grandslam homer in a 13-10 semifinal win over Kailua.

On Saturday morning, Molokai actually out-hit top-seeded Pac-Five, but the Farmers contributed to their own demise by committing five errors in a 9-3 Division-II loss. Pac-Five will meet second-seeded Kauai in today’s 4 p.m. final.

MORE STATES: Maui is hosting two state championship events, as well.

There were two finals held in conjunction with Friday night’s track and field trials at War Memorial Stadium, and both were won by MIL athletes.

In the girls’ pole vault, Baldwin’s Kristine Felix set a new state record by clearing 12 feet, 6 inches. Felix was coming off a broken leg suffered four months ago while attending a mainland vaulting camp. Teammate Amber Kozaki finished second at 12 feet, also breaking the previous mark of 11-8 set by Felix in 2008. .

In the boys’ high jump, Mark Thayer of St. Anthony won with a leap of 6 feet, 4 inches, edging Ervan Jean Pierre of Mililani on fewer jumps. Teammate Brandon Ramos was fourth at 6 feet.

Finals in all other events will be held on Saturday.

The boy’s and girls’ tennis championships are being held in Lahaina.