Kalani and Kailua, the top two teams in the OIA's Division I East standings, will face off in the nightcap of a doubleheader at Waipahu's Hans L'Orange Park Saturday. Crizalmer Caraang Jr. | SL

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Saturday's Oahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division showdown between first-place Kalani and second-place Kailua serves as a rematch of last year's league championship game, but neither team is approaching it as such.

The Falcons (4-0) and Surfriders (3-1), who are ranked 10th and eighth, respectively, in the Hawaiian Electric Baseball Power Rankings, will take the field at Hans L'Orange Park in Waipahu in the first of two regular-season meetings between them at approximately 6 p.m.

The game will be part of a doubleheader that starts at 3:30 p.m. with Radford taking on Farrington in a Division II matchup.

Kalani coach Shannon Hirai said he has tried to emphasize staying even-keel, but knows there is excitement surrounding the game.

"I kind of tell the kids that it's just another regular-season game because the season is long and it's still early, but the kids have expectations so it'll be a little bigger than a normal regular-season game," Hirai said. "We beat them once last year and then we were leading, 5-0, and they came back to beat us the next time we played and then in last year's championship game we almost came back, so the kids are looking forward to it."

Kailua beat Kalani by a score of 7-5 in that game to claim its first OIA title since 2012 and 13th overall. Seven of those league crowns have come under coach Corey Ishigo.

"Rematch or not, it doesn't matter. Nothing really factors into anything for this (game) because we have a totally different team and we just work on what we need to work on and we don't focus on looking at the other team," Ishigo said. "I did what I had to do to prepare. I went through my coaching process to prepare our team for (Kalani), but the ultimate goal is to go through our own process with our own team and doing what we need to do to get better."

The Surfriders had a bye Wednesday and will be playing their first game since a 10-8 loss at Castle last Saturday. Lefty ace Joey Cantillo, a University of Kentucky signee, was roughed up for six runs (three earned) and walked eight batters despite not giving up a hit in just 2 1/3 innings of work, but Kailua briefly reclaimed the lead with a six-run fifth inning, only to allow the Knights to score three runs in the bottom of the frame to pull back ahead.

"There's a lot of positive things to learn from losses," Ishigo said. "When Joey wasn't successful the team bounced back instead of expecting Joey to do everything for them all the time, so that was good to see that after Joey lost the lead, we came back and got the lead back, just to lose it again — but that's not the point. The team worked hard for Joey after they knew that he didn't have his greatest day."

Kailua lost 13 seniors to graduation last year. Cantillo is the lone senior on this year's squad.

"I feel like we needed to lose, anyway. We needed to lose and it's better to lose now than later," Ishigo said. "This is not going to be our last loss, but we'd like to learn from our mistakes because these guys aren't experienced and we need to learn on the way, and the only way to learn is by playing and failing."

Ishigo said he has been pleased with the play of junior shortstop and clean-up hitter Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo, who has hit safely in all four games this season.

"He's played good, but he's expected to play good," Ishigo said of Kurahashi-Choy Foo, who is 7 for 11 at the plate for a .636 batting average. "He was always expected to be one of the guys for us, so it's not surprising, but it is good to see him really showing it."

Cantillo, a first team All-Hawaii selection last year, will get the ball for the Surfriders Saturday.

"Our guys know that they're going to face probably the best pitcher in the East and they're kind of looking forward to the challenge," Hirai said.

Opposing Cantillo on the hill will be junior Edward Lee, who is 1-0 on the year with a 1.52 ERA in two appearances. He allowed one one run on two hits in four innings of work in his only start of the year, a 6-1 win over Kaiser.

The Falcons passed their toughest test to date with Wednesday's 2-0 win at Moanalua, in which ace Harrison Moy went the distance and tossed a one-hitter. It was a much-needed complete-game effort from Moy with an already-lengthy list of ailing arms.

Hirai said that sophomores Riece Myers and Max Patterson have sustained season-ending injuries and senior Devin Omura is dealing with tendinitis.

"We lost some young pitchers that we kind of were hoping that we could use and with the new pitch count rules that makes it difficult," Hirai said.

Kalani, one of just two remaining unbeatens in the OIA (Campbell), managed just five hits against Moanalua Wednesday, but more importantly, did not commit an error for the first time since the season opener.

"That was good to see because in the preseason we kind of stunk it up," Hirai said.

Moy is part of what Hirai calls a "core group" of veterans, including fellow seniors Kohl Suehiro, Hunter Lau and Bronson Matsumoto.

"Over the summer we took them to the mainland to play and that brought them a lot closer as a team and those are the guys that are leading this team now," said Hirai, who graduated 10 seniors last season.

"We've got 10 seniors again this year," Hirai said. "It's back-to-back big classes so that kind of helps because I believe we have two or three starters that came back from last year and three pitchers that pitched last year — not a whole lot, but they did pitch last year."

Hirai said the 4-0 start to the regular season is in complete contrast to a rough preseason.

"We had guys that really thought they were in shape and when we started practice we were actually nowhere near where we needed to be," Hirai said. "I think they kind of took it for granted and some key players were not ready to play. Some of the pitchers decided to be power lifters and lost flexibility and are only now getting it back. I mean, we looked terrible in the preseason, but that might have been a blessing because they had to work to get back in shape and things are starting to fall into place now."

A win would give the Falcons a two-game lead in the D1 East, while a Surfriders' victory would deadlock the teams at 4-1 in the seven-team standings just one game short of the midpoint of the 12-game regular season.