Baldwin's Kawena Alo-Kaonohi allowed just one run on five hits, striking out three and walking none to earn a complete game victory over Maui. Brien Ing | SL

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WAILUKU, Maui — To say that Kawena Alo-Kaonohi was eager to take the field Friday is a vast understatement.

Alo-Kaonohi, Baldwin's senior ace pitcher, turned in a complete-game five-hitter to help the Bears to a 5-1 win over rival Maui High before a robust evening crowd of about 1,000 fans at Iron Maehara Stadium.

It was the much-anticipated and long-awaited opening game of a three-game series between the Bears and Sabers, who entered the contest tied atop the Division I standings in the Maui Interscholastic League. Wednesday and Thursday's games were postponed due to heavy rains.

With the win, Baldwin — the seventh-ranked team in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, moved into sole possession of first place in the five-team league and improved to 10-0. The sixth-ranked Sabers suffered their first loss to fall to 9-1.

"You know, every time Maui High and Baldwin plays there's so much rivalry that goes on, (so) there's not much that we needed to talk about today," Baldwin coach Jon Viela said. "Our boys, every year they come out and they play hard against Maui High. Tonight, I think we played one of our better games."

Leading the way was Alo-Kaonohi, a 5-foot-10 right-hander. He struck out three and walked none and threw just 81 pitches — 60 for strikes.

"I'm not bragging, but I thought everything I pitched was working," said Alo-Kaonohi, who had just one three-ball count and registered first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 27 batters he faced.

The lone run Alo-Kaonohi gave up was unearned.

"He pounded the zone, kept us off the bags and he pitched well," Maui High coach Chase Corniel said.

Alo-Kaonohi, who batted 2 for 4 out of the clean-up spot, got more than enough run support.

The Bears posted 10 hits — two apiece by Alo-Kaonohi, Haloa Dudoit, Damien Awai and Nainoa Keahi — and were aided by five errors by the Sabers.

"We had timely hitting tonight," Viela said. "We manufactured runs, we had sacrifice flys, we ran the bases well — all of that contributes to putting runs on the board. We've been working on our hitting the past couple of weeks. They've been working hard in the cage with their swings. It paid off tonight and then we had good pitching. It was a good win for us."

Conversely, the Sabers got the leadoff man aboard four times — three of them on singles. However, none of them came around to score and only two of them even reached second base.

Bryant Nakagawa had two of Maui's five hits in the game — none of them the extra-base variety. Treston Carter allowed four runs on eight hits in four innings of work and was the losing pitcher.

Maui scored its only run in the bottom of the sixth when it executed a double steal and Kao Mindoro came in to score.

The Bears jumped out to an early lead on Nawai Ah Yen's RBI-single in the top of the opening frame. They added two runs in the third inning when Awai drove in Ah Yen with his one-out double down the left field line and came around to score on a error — one of three in the inning.

Corniel acknowledged the back-to-back postponements affected his team, but downplayed it as a reason for its struggles Friday.

"Of course, but (Baldwin) had to deal with it, too," Corniel said. "I think we, as a team, just need to refocus on what's important and playing catch and executing, bottom line."

The long wait for Friday's series-opener didn't work against Alo-Kaonohi, he said.

"We were very tempted to play," Alo-Kaonohi said. "The first day, when it got canceled we were was bummed, especially me (because) this is my last year. I just wanted to pitch. This team is a tough (Maui) team and I knew I would have to work hard to get the win."

Ah Yen drove in another run in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly to score Dudoit.
The Bears added a run in the fifth to stretch their lead to 5-0 when Awai scored on Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa's sacrifice fly to right field.

The teams will play again at 5:30 p.m. on Monday and at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Maehara Stadium.

"Everyday is a new day — we tell our players that," Corniel said. "We're going to come out hard and my boys know that they're going to be ready to go, bottom line. Tomorrow's another day. This ain't over yet. This first game was a good game to get our feet whet, now this is the game that we have to win. If not then the third game doesn't really matter."

Baldwin can clinch the top seed in the MIL Division I tournament and one of the league's two berths in next month's Wally Yonamine Foundation/Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships with a win in either game. Maui must win both games to earn the No. 1 seed in the MIL tournament.