Kamehameha beats Iolani for 3rd straight ILH baseball title, gets HHSAA top seed – Spectrum News

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HONOLULU — When a downpour at Central Oahu Regional Park forced the Interscholastic League of Honolulu to change the site and date of its playoff baseball game between the Kamehameha and Iolani, the two-time defending league champion Warriors were not ready to call it a day.
Kamehameha, trailing by a run in the bottom of the second inning when play was suspended, got back to its Kapalama hillside campus around 5:30 p.m. Monday and players set about taking some swings in the batting cages.
“Everyone took it as a productive day. Nobody takes a day off on this team,” outfielder Cade Wehrsig said Tuesday at Moanalua High’s turf field, where the Warriors came back to defeat the Raiders 9-3 and claim a third straight title in the uber-competitive ILH.
Moanalua administration offered up their venue with CORP and Ala Wai both inundated from days of heavy rain, for which both Kamehameha and Iolani expressed gratitude. There was the possibility of up to two more playoff games to come if the Warriors did not close it out that day.
Kamehameha (15-2) was determined to not prolong matters and claimed the ILH’s seeded bye into the 12-team HHSAA tournament at Iron Maehara Stadium in Wailuku, Maui.
“The more you play, the more pressure is inflicted upon yourselves at times,” Warriors coach Daryl Kitagawa said. “Glad it’s over. We’ll prepare for states. I think our rotation will line up how we want to. We’ll get into work the rest of this week, early next week, and then we’ll fly out to Maui on Tuesday, get a workout in at Maui, and then be ready to play on Thursday.”
The HHSAA released its Wally Yonamine Foundation Division I baseball bracket late Wednesday night, with Kamehameha receiving the top seed.
OIA champ Mililani is the 2 seed, MIL champ Kamehameha-Maui is the 3 and BIIF champ Waiakea is the 4 seed for play at Iron Maehara Stadium in Wailuku, Maui.
Iolani will face Leilehua on the opening day Wednesday with the winner advancing to take on KS-Maui.
Raiders coach Kurt Miyahira wouldn’t ascribe the outcome to the change of site or location.
“Hats off to Kamehameha,” Miyahira said. “They earned it.”
Kitagawa, who led Kamehameha to its first state title in decades in 2023, was asked about his players’ work in the cages after the rainout. He smiled and called them “crazy.”
Iolani (11-9-1) came through the loser’s bracket in the double-elimination ILH tournament. After a rough start to the season — the Raiders were 3-6 at one point — Iolani turned it on in April and came into the week having won six of seven.
“The last weeks have been fun,” Miyahira said. “We’re fortunate to earn the opportunity to state tournament.”
Kamehameha switched pitchers from Kaikai Kaneshiro to Kupono Barkdull when the suspended game resumed. Barkdull worked three innings for the win. He gave up only one run — a solo shot to Iolani’s Judah Ota in the third.
Iolani, which had fewer options after a series of playoff games, elected to go back to Lawakua Tiberi, who ran into trouble in the fourth.
Kamehameha still trailed 3-2 going into the inning, but Wehrsig, a senior lefty, turned on a ball and launched it over the Moanalua batting cage on the short porch in right field, a three-run shot that was the meat of a five-run frame. It swung things for good.
“It was two out so Coach Daryl walked up to me, and he said, ‘just look for something small,’” Wehrsig said. “I was just trying to look at hitting over the shortstop’s head. That’s really all my mentality. And then when they put the new guy (Payton Nasu) in, I was just trying to time him up, really, that’s what you’re supposed to do as a hitter.”
First baseman Dillon Andres doubled and drove in two and second baseman Logan Akaka was 4-for-4 for Kamehameha.
Saint Louis was the ILH’s third representative. Benny Agbayani’s Crusaders face Kamehameha-Hawaii with the winner advancing to face Mililani.
Baldwin, last year’s co-champion along with Maui High, takes on Kailua in the nightcap of four games on Wednesday.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.

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