Mililani'a CJ Ibara makes a throw against Baldwin. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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MANOA - Backed by superb defensive plays, Micah Chinen fired a three-hitter and No. 2 Mililani disposed of third-seeded Baldwin, 6-0, in Thursday's quarterfinal of the Wally Yonamine Foundation Division i state baseball tournament at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Trojans (14-3), runners-up the past two tournaments, advance to Friday's semifinals against the winner of the Mid-Pacific-Waiakea quarterfinal.

"They go hand-in-hand for us," Mililani coach Mark Hirayama said of his strong pitching and fielding against the Bears. "We're not going to score a lot of runs, so we count on our pitchers to throw strikes to keep us in the ball game and let our defense make plays.

"Coach Johnny (Sakurai) does good job with the infielders. They work a lot on the fundamental stuff. If you can field on the worst field, you can field, you can field anywhere."

Shortstop Justice Nakagawa drove in two runs with a triple to highlight a four-run sixth inning for the Trojans. He also turned a niffy double play in the second when he dove for a grounder up the middle and flipped the ball over to second baseman Jarrin Morikawa, who completed the relay to first.

Morikawa also made a back-handed stab of a grounder up the middle to rob Haloa Dudoit of a possible hit. Third baseman CJ Ibara made diving stabs to his left and right in the seventh inning to account for two-thirds of the outs in the perfect seventh for Chinen.

"That's how they are," Chinen said of his defense. "They're very solid and so routinely and second nature, they already know how to pick it up."

Chinen was masterful, allowing two infield singles and a ground single to right by Lane Kashiwamura, who was 2 for 3. Chinen walked none and hit a batter in going the distance. It was his fifth start he hasn't allowed a run in his eight starts.

"Micah's been solid all year," Hirayama said. "He gets ahead, he changes speeds. That's the key. He's not a power guy. If he gets behind, he has to come with the fastball and he'll get hit."

Actually, Chinen relied mostly on fastballs, but moved his pitches around deftly to keep the Bears off balanced.

"I wasn't using too much off-speed," Chinen said the 5-foot-6 right-hander. "I was pretty confident with my fastball today because we were ahead and as long as I was placing it well, they would not hit it as hard and my defense would cover that."

The Trojans took a 2-0 lead in the third, cashing in on two hit batsmen by Baldwin starter Linden Kanamu. With two out with runners at first and second Ryan Kono's line single to left scored Morikawa and a bobble by left fielder Nawai Ah Yen allowed Ibara to score. Kong went to second on the error, but was left there when Kaimana Souza-Paaluhi struck out

Mililani opened up its lead with a four-run seventh. Kainoa Wilson singled to short, took second on Kono's sacrifice and went to third when Souza grounded out to shortstop. Sean Sonognini's RBI single made it 3-0. Ty De Sa's single moved courtesy runner Blaine Demerol to second and both scored on Nakagawa's triple to center. Nakagawa scored on pinch hitter Stewart Okazaki's single to make it 6-0 before pinch hitter Phillip Winchester struck out.

Kamanu went the distance, allowing six hits and six runs with three strikeouts for the Bears.