Punahou players celebrate after defeating Saint Louis to punch their ticket to the Division I state tournament. Steve Erler | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

WAIPAHU – Their circumstances coming into the playoff for the final Division I state tournament berth were so disparate and it showed.

Left-hander Noah Goss turned in a stellar performance in middle relief and No. 4 Punahou beat No. 7 Saint Louis, 5-2, Thursday night at Hans L'Orange Park in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu second state berth game. It will be Punahou's first state appearance since 2012.

"It's been a long time," Goss said. "It's a good feeling. It's indescribable."

The Buffanblu (12-9) could have sealed a state berth twice within the past week in the ILH double-elimination tournament, only to fall to Mid-Pacific each time. They then had to overcome an early 2-0 deficit to rally past the Crusaders (11-7), who had not played since April 19.

"It's been a journey," Punahou coach Keenan Sue said. "These guys have responded to adversity so well all year. When we were down 2, they didn't lose faith. They took it one pitch at a time, which is so cliché, but it's cliché for a reason. They focused up on every single pitch and they took it to the house."

Goss (4-2) pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings of two-hit ball, walking two and striking out five. He replaced starting pitcher Geoffrey Moore, a right-hander, who allowed two runs, five hits and a walk in 1 2/3 innings. Riley Guieb closed the door with a perfect seventh for his sixth save.

The Crusaders, who finished second during the regular season, suffered through an unusual end. They were ousted from the double-elimination tournament early and had to painstakingly wait for Mid-Pacific to beat Punahou to claim the overall title by winning the regular-season and second-round titles. Had Punahou won the second round, Saint Louis' season would have been done. But being idle 10 days took its toll on the Crusaders' bats.

"We knew that was going to be an issue coming into tonight," Saint Louis coach George Gusman said. "It's one of those things. We put ourselves in that situation, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves. The last 20 games, we only played three games, so if there was going to be a concern tonight, it was going to be offensively."

Cole Cabrera and Logan Williams each had three hits for the Buffanblu, who totaled 12 hits. Williams was a home run shy of the cycle.

Chase Meilleur (4-4) was tagged for three runs, five hits and two walks in 3 1/3 innings.

Leadoff hitter Keith Torres had three of Saint Louis' seven hits.

Saint Louis got on the board first with two out in the bottom of the second against Moore. John Kea singled to left and went to third on Aaron Renaud's flare single to right-center. Keith Torres then scorched a liner off first baseman Easton Takamoto's glove for an RBI single that sent Renaud to third. Renaud came up lame and was lifted for pinch runner Triston Campbell, who then scored on Kaiolohia Perreira-Alquiza's single to left to chase Moore. Goss walked Matt Wong, but retired Brendan Uchima on a fly to center to end the threat.

Meanwhile, Meilleur pitched through the first three innings without allowing a run, despite giving up doubles that were followed up by walks in the first and third innings.

The Buffanblu then sent nine batters to the plate in their four-run fourth. Sue used four consecutive pinch hitters, three of them delivering hits. But at the outset, it appeared Meilleur might escape a lead-off triple by Williams. With the infield playing halfway, Asa Kurasaki smoked a grounder to shortstop Torres, who fired home to catcher Taylor Meilleur, who applied a tag on courtesy runner Evan Tsuruda. With Kurasaki on first on the fielder's choice, he took second on Colin Freeman's single to right-center. Pinch hitter Codey Kitagawa hit a low liner to center that Kurasaki had to hold up to see if the ball would be caught, but instead it sailed into center for a hit to load the bases.

Chase Meilleur was pulled for 6-foot-4 hard-throwing right-hander Dylan Spain, who was greeted by pinch hitter Jerick Nomura's RBI single that reloaded the bases. Cabrera also singled home a run that kept the bases loaded and tied the game at 2. Goss then hit a sharp grounder that second baseman Perreira-Alquiza could not handle, scoring two runs and putting runners at first and second. The runners advanced on a balk, but Spain struck out Takamoto and got Andrew Matsueda to ground out to second to end the inning.

Punahou added a run in the top of the fourth. Williams led off with a double, took on Kurasaki's sacrifice and scored when Spain's pitch was low in the dirt and skipped to the backstop. Courtesy runner Tsuruda hesitated toward the plate. Catcher Taylor Meilleur retrieved the ball and fired to home plate, but pitcher Spain dropped the tag.

Meanwhile, Goss kept the Crusaders at bay until Guieb finished the game in the seventh.

"When he first came in he was a little off," batterymate Williams said of Goss. "But he started getting the momentum going, started hitting his spots. He just kept them off-balanced."

Sue described Goss' outing as gutsy because he came off four days' rest.

"For him to come back from Saturday, it shows how much he wants it," Sue said. "All these guys support him, all these guys support each other. It was a team effort today. We used every single pinch hitter we had. As far as a team win, it's as team as it gets."