Waiakea's David Nakamura (left), Iolani's Shane Saski and Baldwin's Cade Kalehuawehe (right) provided clutch offensive performances for their respective teams. ScoringLive photo illustration

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No. 3 Waiakea 6, No. 8 Campbell 2

David Nakamura pitched 6 1/3 strong innings and Kalai Rosario drove in three runs to lead third-seeded Waiakea over Campbell, 6-2, Wednesday in the first quarterfinal of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Division I Baseball State Tournament at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Warriors (16-0), third in the Hawaiian Electric/ScoringLive Power Rankings, denied the Sabers (14-3) from advancing to their sixth consecutve semifinals.

Nakamura (6-0) allowed two runs, one earned, four hits and three walks with three strikeouts before giving way to Devin Midel, who retired the last two batters on five pitches to earn the save for Waiakea, which reached the title game last year but fell to Maui.

"Campbell's a great team," Waiakea coach Rory Inouye said. "We knew that coming into today. Our goal was to put pressure and hope for the hits and we got lucky."

Nakamura allowed runners to reach in all but the fourth and sixth innings. But he induced an inning-ending double play in the second after a runner reached on an error and minimized further damage when he allowed single runs in the third and fifth innings. The run in the third was unearned.

"He's the ace of this staff, keeping guys off-balanced," Inouye said of the left-handed Nakamura. "He did a great job again today and Midel did a great job to close the door."

Nakamura wanted to finish, but he was nearing the 110-pitch limit in an outing. He left with one out in the seventh after walking consective batters and reached 105 pitches. Midel got back-to-back force out grounders to end the game.

"At the end, I think I was starting to overthrow a little bit," Nakamura said. "I may have been a little fatigued, but I wanted that game. It goes beyond my fielders with their gloves, the bats, even our bullpen. I know that if I run into trouble, they'll be right there to help me out."

The sophomore leftfielder Rosario provided half the offense to stake Nakamura to an early lead. Rosario had an RBI infield single in the first and two-run triple in the third.

"We knew we had David on the mound, so it's going to be a battle," Rosario said. "He's going to pitch a good game so we just had to put runs on the board and that's what we did."

Nakamura also helped insure his lead with a two-run double in a three-run sixth. It came later in the inning after an RBI double by Safea Villaruz-Mauai.

It was an uncharacteristically rough outing for Campbell starting pitcher Jamin Kalaola (3-1). He lasted three-plus innings and was charged with three runs, six hits and a season-high three walks with one strikeout. He was followed by four relievers. Campbell pitching allowed a season-high six runs.