Saint Louis' Pono Anderson throws a pitch to the plate against Roosevelt. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Saint Louis' Brendan Uchima makes a throw to first base against Roosevelt. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Roosevelt's Royce Emoto connects for a base hit against Saint Louis. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Saint Louis' Jordan Mopas connects with a pitch against Roosevelt. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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MANOA – It was a Saint Louis firework show at Les Murakami Stadium Tuesday night.

The Crusaders, ranked third in the ScoringLive/OC16 Baseball Power Rankings, rattled off a season-high 13 runs on 15 hits to blank Roosevelt (9-7) in the opening round of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Baseball State Championships. Saint Louis improved its record to 15-6 on the year.

With the win Saint Louis advances to face No. 5 Waiakea (13-1), the Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I Champion, in a 5:00 p.m. contest. That contest will feature Warriors' left-hander Kodi Medeiros against the Crusaders' right-hander Jordan Yamamoto, two highly touted prospects expected to be taken in the June Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

Despite winning the Division I Interscholastic League of Honolulu regular season title, Saint Louis was forced to play in the first round of the state tournament after ceding the ILH’s overall title to Mid-Pacific (15-3-1).

“I think we were disappointed with out performance in the tournament, particularly against Mid-Pac, so we’ve been working hard, working on some things. Fortunately we came out hitting the ball well,” said Saint Louis coach George Gusman. 

“We were just trying to make a statement,” said Crusader designated hitter Ryder Kuhns who spearheaded the team’s offense. Kuhns batted 3 for 4, driving in four runs and scoring twice. 

Junior Crusader Pono Anderson (4-3) picked up the win with three strikeouts on four hits through five innings. This was Anderson’s first win where he pitched a shutout.

“Pono delivered, that’s how good Pono can be,” Gusman said on Anderson’s performance. I’m glad he found his groove the way he was (tonight). Great performance on his part.” 

The Crusaders opened up the first inning with a five-run output to give themselves a lead that would not be relinquished. Rayson Romero and Jordan Mopas led off the inning with back-to-back hits on Roosevelt pitcher on Reece Okura. After a Jacob Gribbin strikeout, Kuhns and Jordan Yamamoto drove in Romero and Mopas respectively to make it 2-0 Saint Louis. Devan Stubblefield doubled up the lead with his triple to right-center to plate Kuhns and Yamamoto. Stubblefield scored the final run of the inning on a Brendan Uchima sacrificial fly to right. 

“We just practiced a lot. We hit in the cage a lot. We were hitting a lot before we came here, that just helped us today,” Kuhns said on the team’s hitting prowess.

Saint Louis plated two runs each in the next two innings to make it 9-0 in the first three innings.

The score would remain the same until the sixth inning. Saint Louis scored four runs in the top of the sixth to put them in mercy run territory. Closer Peyton Oshiro would relieve Anderson in the bottom of the inning to seal the deal.

“We’ll enjoy this on the short bus ride home,” said Gusman. “Huge challenge tomorrow, not much time to prepare. We’ll do the best we can. I don’t think we will be (as) successful tomorrow, but (this win) still will gives us confidence heading into tomorrow.”

Roosevelt catcher Aaron Emoto led the team in the loss, batting 2 for 3 with a double.