The Sabers opened the flood gates in the second inning to score seven runs to rout Kalani to return to the OIA Division I title game for the first time since 2015. Steve Erler | SL

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MANOA — Unlike the nail biters in the quarterfinals, the semifinals turned out to be one-sided routs.

Campbell (14-0) exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the second inning to rout Kalani, 11-1 in six innings at Les Murakami Stadium on Friday night.

The Sabers return to the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I championship game for the first time since 2015. Campbell faces the OIA East's top-seeded Kailua in a rematch of the 2014 OIA title game which will follow the Division II game at Les Murakami Stadium.

"It feels great, it didn't feel good losing in the quarterfinals, but it feels great this year for bouncing back," said pitcher Jamin Kalaloa.

"They know the feel and they train hard. We have to approach to take one game at a time. Tonight it was about Kalani, now we have to focus on Kailua. Kailua is a good team and a good program. We have to be ready for their challenge and they will come out ready for us," said Campbell coach Rory Pico.

Kalani (10-4) plays Mililani (7-7) for third place. The Falcons and Trojans already clinched state tournament berths.

Kalaloa pitched six complete innings and overcame a shaky first inning for the win. He allowed four consecutive Falcon hits early in the top of the first, but from there, Kalaloa and the defense settled down. He allowed one run, walked one and struck out four—three of those strikes came in the sixth to get out of the inning.

"After that I worked down more and the offense helped me boost my confidence because they got that lead for me," said Kalaloa.

"Kalani put some good swings on those pitches and landed four. It was huge that he was able to escape that inning with only one run. said Pico.

Kalani jumped early as Kohl Suehiro singled and scored the Falcons only run of the game off of Bronson Matsumoto's RBI single. The Falcons loaded the bases, but catcher Todd Takahama caught the pop out behind home plate and Kalaloa struck out Marquis Morgan to contain the threat. The Sabers would hold Kalani hitless for four straight innings.

"This is playoff baseball. You know you will get everyone's best. You have to come out mentally more than anything else to compete. You have to grind through it and pull together and make sure we stay together to get the job done. I think we did a pretty good job tonight," said Pico.

Dylan Ramon, who went 2-for-4 with two RBI doubles plated Justin Fernandez to tie the game at 1 after the first inning.

Campbell sent 11 batters and came away with seven runs on seven hits to blow the game wide open. Nick Sampson led off with a single and Roy Clemons-Diaz followed up with another one to left field. Kalaloa plated a run and reached on of the Falcons' two fielding errors and Kekahi Reiny Aloy placed a perfect bunt single. Shane Shimizu reached on a fielder's choice as the Falcons got the second out, but Ikaika Ganancial, Ramon, Takahama and Sampson all drove in runs to make it, 8-1.

This was the best hitting performance by the Sabers all season and the runs scored ties their largest margin of victory (10 runs) since their opener against Aiea.

"It felt good. We struggled doing that all season. We wouldn't build on our hits, we would scatter it all over the place," said Kalaloa.

"We had some good swings tonight. They trusted their approach and squared up some balls," said Pico.

Edward Lee, who started the game was pulled for Jarod Kaneshiro after pitching 1 2/3 innings of the eight runs scored, two were earned in the loss. Kalani went to five total pitchers for the game.

Sampson added another Saber run in the fourth after doubling to left field and scored off of Clemons-Diaz's sacrifice fly to deep center.

Since the Falcons started with four hits in the first inning, they left the next four innings empty-handed until the sixth. Matsumoto and Micah Kawano consecutively singled to left and right respectively, however Kalaloa confidently worked his spots to retire the side.

"He really bear down after that. He got into some jams, but he was able to pitch his way out and I was proud of his performance tonight," said Pico, on Kalaloa.

With the Sabers up by a big margin, other players had an opportunity to get some at-bats. Logan Carvalho, Rory Escuadro each singled and Kalaloa scored Carvalho from second. Following the third hit, Noah Ching was pulled for Pablo Ruelas who beaned Markus Ramos to load the bases and then walked in Escuadro to end the game due to the 10-run difference.