Kamehameha Maui, Baldwin both fall in state baseball semifinals; meet for third place today at 4 p.m.

Through red eyes that had seen some tears, Baldwin High School’s junior second baseman Marley Sebastian struggled to sum up the the Bears 1-0 semifinals loss to Waiākea on Friday that left the team one game short of playing in today’s Division I state championship.

“This is going push us to exhaustion — it really means a lot to us,” Sebastian said. “We had seniors we were playing for. At Baldwin, we don’t play for ourselves. We play for each other.”

Hours later, the home crowd at Maehara Stadium in Wailuku also watched Kamehameha Maui fall 6-1 to Saint Louis School, ending the Warriors chance to play in the title game for the first time in school history.

“Those are incredible baseball players,” Kamehameha Maui coach Shane Dudoit said of Saint Louis. “We needed to play our best to beat a team like that, and we never (did). Our balls didn’t drop. They caught everything we hit at them. So, nothing to be ashamed about.”

Today at 4 p.m. at Maehara Stadium, Kemehameha Maui, the Maui Interscholastic League champion, will play Baldwin, the league’s runner-up, for third place in the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Division I state baseball tournament. 

Waiākea, the Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion, will take on Saint Louis, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up, at 7 p.m. for the state championship.

Friday’s emotional losses for Maui teams were the exact opposite from the day before, when both won. Baldwin enjoying the jubilation of eliminating the tournament’s top seed, Kamehameha Schools Kapalama, from championship contention at the event with an improbable 1-0 victory. And Maui Kamehameha won 6-2 over Leilehua High from Oʻahu to advance farther than it ever had before.

“One day you can feel euphoric and on top of the world and the next day you can hit rock bottom,” Sebastian said. “That’s just how the game of baseball is and that’s just life.”

On Friday, the Bears missed going to their fourth straight state championship game.

In the second semifinal, senior shortstop Bruin Agbayani — who has signed to play at the University of Michigan and will be a top draft prospect when the Major League Baseball draft arrives in mid July —did just about everything for Saint Louis.

Agbayani smacked a ground-rule double to left-center field with one out in the top of the first inning, but he was left there after Kamehameha Maui pitcher Josiah Kaya-Medeiros got Ho’omana Heffernan and Kaili Kane to each fly out. 

Leading off the bottom of the first inning, Kamehameha Maui’s Bransyn Hong matched Agbayani with a towering double to deep left-center and took third on an errant pickoff throw by pitcher Jandon Perreira. One out later Isaac Gosselin hit a hard ground ball that went through the legs of Agabayani at shortstop, allowing Hong to scamper home with the first run of the game.

In the top of the second inning, the Crusaders showed their prowess quickly. Chase Sutherland and Laakea Correa each walked to start the inning and moved to second and third bases on a sacrifice bunt by Shea Yamaguchi. Drake Kenui tied the game 1-1 with a bloop hit to center field, leaving runners at the corners with one out.

Aycen Fernandez grounded out to Hong at shortstop to drive in Correa with the go-ahead run to make it 2-1. Kahanu Martinez sent a deep fly ball to left field that was dropped by Kamehameha Maui’s Teyvon Kahalewai, allowing another run to score and push the lead to 3-1. Agbayani then crushed a triple to deep right-center to make it 4-1.

Kaya-Medeiros struck out Heffernan to finally end the inning after eight Crusaders stepped to the plate.

Agabayani singled with one out in the fourth inning, stole second, stole third and scored on a throwing error on Kamehameha Maui catcher Duke Aloy to make it 5-1.

Agbayani, the son of former major leaguer and Saint Louis coach Benny Agbayani, put the final touches on this one when he singled in the top of the seventh, took third on a single by Heffernan, and scored on an error to account for the final score.

Agbayani finished 4-for-4 with a double, triple, 2 runs and an RBI. He had a home run in the Crusaders’ 5-2 win over Mililani on Thursday. He is hitting 6 for 11 in the state tournament, with 4 runs, and 2 RBIs. He also smacked two home runs in the Baldwin preseason tournament in February.

“Oh, I love this place,” Agbayani said. “I just feel comfortable playing out here. We’re from O’ahu, but playing down here, it feels like home for me.”

For Baldwin, it was the “highest of highs to the lowest of lows”  in a matter of 24 hours, according to coach Craig Okita. Waiākea coach Chris Honda and Okita were teammates at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo in the early 1990s and are still close friends.

“We had so many chances and we just couldn’t get it done,” said Okita, whose Bears left 10 runners on base. “That’s just baseball. … And if you told me at the beginning of the game that they only scored one run, I’d like my chances every day of the week.”

Honda said he knew it would be a battle — the Bears were playing in their 10th state semifinal in the last 14 tournaments.

“The Baldwin program is a tough program,” Honda said. “They’re scrappy. They’re always in the game. Great players, good coaching. You have to earn your win against them. They’ll never give it to you.”

Boston Kabayashi led off the top of the second for Waiākea by reaching on a single to first base that took a bad hop just before reaching first baseman Koltyn Sergent. Clemson Julian walked to put runners on first and second with no outs.

After Jerrell Alston struck out, Tycen Baruela smacked a single up the middle. Baldwin’s Kika-John Kuiailani bobbled the ball in center field for an error, allowing Koibayashi to score the only run of the game.

Shortstop Laakea Ko, one of three senior starters the Bears will lose after today’s third-place game, said while fighting back tears: “Everything we do here is for everything past baseball. Sorry.”

Ko plans to play college baseball at a junior college in California. 

“I’ve been really prepared,” Ko said. “Our coaches and this program prepared us to go past college, too, and everywhere. … I’m going to miss it a lot.”

Baldwin pitcher Justice Wakamatsu went the distance on the mound, allowing seven hits, walking two and striking out three. He was slightly out-dueled by Waiākea’s Hurley Soong, who completed a four-hitter.

Hong, who was a standout for the Kamehameha Maui state championship football team last fall, will continue his baseball career at St. Martin’s College in Lacey, Wash.

“Me and my senior class just wanted to leave a legacy for the underclassmen and the other players coming up,” Hong said.”It hurts losing, but we’re not going anywhere. In the end, it’s a program that we have set up here and it’s only going to get better.”

FRIDAY’S SEMIFINAL RESULTS

WAIAKEA 1, BALDWIN 0

Baldwin.  000.  000.  0—0.   4.    2

Waiakea. 010.  000.  1—1    7.    2

Justice Wakamatsu and Kai Watanabe; Hurley Soong and Tycen Baruela. W—Soong. L—Wakamatsu.

Leading hitters—Baldwin, Laakea Ko 2-3. Waiākea, Jesse Inouye 2-3; Boston Kobayashi 2-3, run.

SAINT LOUIS 5, KS MAUI 1

Saint Louis.  040.  100.  1—6.  8.  2

KS Maui.      100.  000.  0—1.  2.  2

Jandon Perreira, Trycen Kaimiola (6) and Chase Sutherland; Josiah Kaya-Medeiros, Bransyn Hong (7) and Duke Aloy. W—Perreira. L—Kaya-Medeiros. 2B—Saint Louis, Bruin Agbayani; Kamehameha Maui, Bransyn Hong. 3B—Saint Louis, Agbayani.

Leading hitters—Saint Louis, Agbayani 4-4, 2 runs, RBI.