Bears-Sabers title shows strength of Maui’s baseball pipeline 

HONOLULU — It was one of the most unusual settings they had ever played in, with high-rise apartment buildings dotting the gray sky beyond the outfield fence, but for the Maui and Baldwin high school baseball teams, the important part was simply baseball.

And when the teams from the two largest schools in Maui County were declared co-champions of the state tournament on Saturday, it wasn’t the first time some of the players had shared a significant title. 

The rosters included former Little League World Series teammates, players who’d grown up together in the Maui youth baseball system and competed against each other at the Maui Interscholastic League level time and time again. 

“It’s been a battle every time and each team never gives up and it’s definitely a great baseball atmosphere, for sure,” Maui High head coach Chase Corniel said. “The MIL is definitely tough, everybody in the league is tough. I think our league generates these type of teams for now and the players are very competitive, too.” 

The spirit of Valley Isle baseball past, present and future was everywhere on Saturday in the cramped venue at Moanalua High School under cloudy, rainy skies on a history-making day for the MIL.

The Bears and Sabers were declared co-champions of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association Division I state tournament after the rain stopped their unprecedented matchup in the title game. 

It was the first time in MIL history that two of its teams have met in a state championship game, in any sport at any level, according to records kept on the HHSAA website that date back to the association’s beginning in 1959. It was also the first time that a state baseball final has been called short by weather, resulting in co-champions.

The talent displayed on the field was a landmark for the MIL in what can arguably be labeled its best sport. Maui High won its third state crown, to go along with 2017 and 1982, while Baldwin won its seventh (1959, 1960, 1984, 1995, 2016, 2018). The Bears lost each of the last two state title games by one run.

“This will be a very nice picture with the two teams, something that we’ll look back and cherish, I’m sure, but it seems a little, a little somber,” Baldwin head coach Craig Okita said. “It’s tough to win a baseball state championship in Hawai‘i. I mean, it’s tough, there’s a lot of good teams, a lot of teams that can win it, so I’m sure they’ll look back …

“To get to three state title games in a row, these guys don’t know what they’ve accomplished. I’m sure later on in life they will look back and be proud of their accomplishments and be proud of what we did today.”

Corniel was of the same mindset on a frustrating, start-and-stop day.

“I’m proud of just both teams, you know, I’m proud of everybody here,” Corniel said. “This has been a real policy of mine. It’s important that we focus on the positive and focus on a great season.”

Maui High won its first MIL title since 2008 this season, ending Baldwin’s streak of league crowns at 12 with a dramatic come-from-behind 5-4 win over Baldwin on April 30. In the end, the Sabers finished with a 3-2 edge in games won between the two crosstown rivals — all three Maui High wins were by one run and none of the games were decided by more than three runs. 

The state title game, which was pushed to Saturday by rainy weather on O‘ahu last week, was equally close. The Sabers took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run single by Dawson Nuese. The Bears scored their first run in the top of the second inning on an RBI single by Jevon Raboy. The umpires called a rain delay at 2:53 p.m. 

At 3:39 p.m., HHSAA officials and school administrators called the game due to safety concerns.

The game was stopped when Baldwin’s Kade Fujioka was hit in the helmet by a pitch with the bases loaded, tying the score at 2-2 in the top of the third inning. It was the second straight hit batsman in the inning.

Officials considered playing the game on Maui, but Maui High’s graduation ceremony was Sunday and Baldwin’s Monday.

“Multiple scenarios were considered to complete the game at a later date and venue, however due to end-of-the-school-year activities, including graduations, no viable options were available to complete the game,” a news release from the HHSAA said. “Baldwin and Maui are declared co-champions.”

Five of the six previous D-I state finals have involved an MIL team — Baldwin in 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2023 and Maui High in 2017. The 2020 and 2021 tournaments were canceled during the pandemic. 

Okita said Friday night’s dramatic semifinal wins over Interscholastic League of Honolulu teams — Maui High edged Saint Louis 1-0 and Baldwin beat No. 1-seeded and defending state champion Kamehameha Kapalama 3-2 — were huge steps for the MIL.

“Our league has gotten better,” Okita said. “I’m not going to lie to you and tell you we’re the best league. I mean, the ILH is the best league, hands down, but we were fortunate to win those close games and it was nice to get another shot at them (Maui High) because they beat us in the MIL as well. All of those games could have gone either way and for some reason we were on the short end of the stick every game for those three that we lost.

“So this was kind of, like I said, would have been a fairytale end to come and get this. Unfortunately, as some people say, it is what it is.”

SET UP FOR SUCCESS

The on-field success at the high school level — and for many, college and professional levels — starts at a young age in Maui County.

The first Little League team from Maui to advance to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., was in 2019 when the Central East Maui Little League All-Stars advanced all the way to the U.S. championship game.

Five players from that team — Logan Kuloloia and Nicholas Nashiwa from Maui High; Marley Sebastian, Kaedyn Miyake-Matsubayashi and Isaac Imamura from Baldwin — received gold medals on Saturday.

More recently, eight players on the field Saturday played together on the 2023 Senior League World Series team from Central Maui — Kuloloia for Maui High; Sebastian, Kip Watanabe, Laakea Ko, Brayden Nakamoto, Miyake-Matsubayashi, Derin Lewis and Kaden Anderson for Baldwin. Valley Isle teams have advanced to the SLWS for 15- and 16-year-olds seven of the last eight times the event has been played.

While both teams clearly wanted to win the state crown, the camaraderie of growing up playing the game together and as opponents was clear as day under the rainy, gray skies after the decision to declare co-champions was announced. 

The two teams gathered between home plate and the pitcher’s mound and had fun competing in jan ken po while playfully pulling on the one state title trophy that was on-site. Both teams will get a koa-wood, warrior-head state championship trophy.

“It really helped us, we know each other very well, the more you train with each other the more the bond grows stronger,” Sebastian said. “Having that close relationship definitely helps.”

Sebastian added he was glad to see Kuloloia and Nashiwa on the other side of the diamond on Saturday.

“It was really good to see everyone excel,” Sebastian said. “It’s really nice to see.”

He said he was fine with the final outcome.

“I’m proud, deep down, like overall, I’m proud of how far we came because we worked so hard for this,” Sebastian said. “But sometimes stuff doesn’t go the way you want it to go. Sometimes in life you don’t get a straight answer, sometimes it’s left unanswered and I’m OK with that. We didn’t win and we didn’t lose.”

At the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport prior to the flight home, Kuloloia said that he truly gained the mindset of success on that Central East Maui Little League team that went from Wailuku to Williamsport. 

“Personally it set me up for all the pressure that is going to be on you during the game because the Little League World Series, there was a super big crowd,” Kuloloia said. “I wasn’t expecting that, but after that I learned how to calm my nerves and pitch, too, and just do my best.”

Kuloloia said it was no coincidence that these two teams landed where they did on Saturday. The Valley Isle has enjoyed unprecedented success in youth baseball in the last decade with World Series teams and titles at several levels.

“I think playing against each other definitely makes you better because you are always going to want to be better than that guy, or the other team, so that makes you want to be way better than them,” Kuloloia said. “On the field we’re not really friends, we’re just trying to win the game, but off the field it’s all friends.”

Brad Lung was the head coach of the 2019 Central East Maui Little League All-Stars, who won county, state and regional titles on the way to Pennsylvania. 

“I think it’s super special for Maui, it shows the caliber of baseball we have back home and the grit that these guys have,” Lung said. “Put credit out there to all the coaches in the youth leagues that get them ready to play for these great coaches like Craig Okita and Chase Corniel.”

Lung added, “It’s super emotional, I got a little choked up this morning. You can see I’m wearing a jersey that we went on our run with. I’m just super happy for them and proud. A lot of them are going to do well at the next level. Getting the exposure that they had when they were younger was a very big opportunity for them to go up there and play on the Mainland, show the people up there what they have and, of course, they are showing what they have right now.”

The MIL has won 12 Division I state baseball titles overall, including Moloka‘i High School in 1999 and 2000.

Baldwin has been a state runner-up six times and in the state final four an additional nine times. Maui High has been in the state final four another five times.

Longtime friends Levi Maddela, a 2023 Baldwin graduate, and Jonah Richardson, a 2023 Maui High graduate, spent the day watching the game together, ribbing each other all day long.

“We competed from when we were young,” said Maddela, who is back after playing his freshman season at Shorter University, an NCAA Division II school in Rome, Ga. “Me and Jonah played as little kids from when we were young. … All these guys are killing it out there. They’re killing it. We sure enough competed through our youth and we definitely made each other better. We all wanted to be like each other, we all had the same goal, we all hung out together. That’s just what made all of us better and that’s why we are where we are at today.”

Richardson just finished his first year at Arizona Western College, a junior college in Yuma, Ariz.

“Those kids is hammers. Iron sharpens iron. It’s just they both play good baseball and they both deserve to be here,” said Richardson, who plans to transfer to Pierce College in Puyallup, Wash., to continue his career in the fall. “I’m planning to go to a four-year school after this year. Maui baseball, it made me really good, playing against these kids, they’re not easy outs, and I feel like that made me a better player.”

The son of the tournament’s namesake also thinks the title game is a win for the island. Paul Yonamine is the youngest of Wally Yonamine’s three children. Wally Yonamine grew up in Olowalu before playing football for the San Francisco 49ers and becoming a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in 2011, but made sure that Maui would host the tournament that his foundation sponsors once every three years.

“My father grew up near Lahaina in Olowalu, went to school at Lahainaluna, and Lahaina meant a great deal to him, and he would have been horrified about what happened last year in August,” Paul Yonamine said. “And then to see two Maui teams competing for a state title this time around and how inspiring that would be for the people on Maui, I think he’d be very happy.”