Na Menehune and the Falcons set to clash Saturday in a game with quite a bit of significance as far as seeding in the upcoming OIA Division I tournament is concerned. ScoringLive photo illustration

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Playoff-seeding implications will be on the line Saturday when Kalani visits Moanalua in a key Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I East baseball game at Kahala Field.

Na Menehune (6-5) trail the Falcons (7-4) by one game heading into the final weekend of the regular season. Both teams are seeking to finish third in the division, which would secure a home game in the first round of the 12-team league tournament.

Kailua (9-2) has already locked up the top seed in the East and the accompanying first-round bye in the OIA tournament. Castle (7-4), is tied for third with Kalani, but would clinch the second spot with a win over Kailua and a Kalani loss against Moanalua Saturday.

The Falcons hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Knights, by virtue of winning both regular-season meetings. A Kalani win over Moanalua ensures the Falcons the third seed, regardless of the result of the Castle-Kailua game.

Na Menehune need to beat the Falcons and for the Surfriders to beat Castle to keep their hopes for the third seed alive. Moanalua and Castle split their regular-season series.

"It's kind of a mess and it all depends on what Castle does, too," Moanalua coach Scott Yamada said. "I think amongst the three of us we would come out head-to-head ahead of everybody else, but we'll see."

Moanalua enters the weekend having lost its last two games: 2-1 at Castle last Friday and 6-0 at Kailua Wednesday.

"The team morale is not where we want it to be right now coming off of two losses, but we've just got to regroup as far as doing what we've got to do," Yamada said. "We can play good baseball, but it hasn't showed up on the baseball field recently."

Yamada said he has been pleased with the play of senior second baseman Adam Tanoue, who holds a team-best .429 batting average.

"He's been hitting the ball pretty good," Yamada said. "He's getting his hits there and there and doing a good job of getting on base for us."

Tanoue batted 2 for 2 and drove in three runs in a 5-4 loss to Kalani back on March 25.

Junior catcher Kekaulike Kalua had driven in a team-best nine runs and senior infielder Nicholas Enrico and freshman outfielder Andrew Oasay have scored nine runs apiece to lead Na Menehune.

Defense has been suspect as of late for Moanalua, which three errors in its last two games.

"It is what it is right now," Yamada said. "We've just got to take care of what we've got to do. The last couple of games we've been giving other teams four- or five-out innings and that's just killing us. When you give teams an extra out an inning, they're going to score runs."

Kalani, meanwhile, is riding a three-game win streak heading into Saturday, including a 6-3 win over division-leading Kailua Saturday.

"We've got a little bit of confidence having won three in a row," Falcons' coach Shannon Hirai said. "I think we're heading in the right direction, but we're still making a whole bunch of mistakes. So far we've been able to overcome some of them. It would be nice to go into the playoffs with a four-game winning streak."

Hirai praised the play of senior second baseman Justin Ibara, who leads the team in batting average (.400) and runs scored (11)

"I didn't think he could continue hitting like he was last year, but he's pretty much doing it again this year," said Hirai.

Sophomore catcher Bronson Matsumoto is not far behind Ibara with a .364 batting average and eight runs batted in.

"He wasn't really penciled in to be the catcher this year, but he's pretty much hitting in every game and he had a couple of big hits against Kailua, so he's been pretty consistent, hitting-wise, this year," Hirai said.

The Falcons couldn't hold a 4-3 lead the last time the teams met when Na Menehune scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to come from behind.

"We let that one slip away," Hirai said. "We had the lead going into the last two innings and then we gave up a big inning, so I know our kids think they can beat them, so it gives us confidence going into the game."

This time around, Hirai is hoping his club can finish the job, but knows it won't come easy.

"We've always had trouble against them," Hirai said of Moanalua. "They don't make too many mistakes, so it's hard to get runs against them and offensively they put the ball in play, they run, they bunt; they're a pretty solid team overall."

Yamada is hardly taking the Falcons for granted either.

"They're well coached and they're a scrappy bunch of players," Yamada said. "They never give up and they're kind of a dangerous team in a sense, because you never really want to face those kinds of teams. I've said it before that on any given day, anybody can beat anybody and it's been that kind of a season for us."

First pitch between Na Menehune and the Falcons is set for 3 p.m.