Kauai right fielder Ethan Gray celebrates after catching a liner for the final out in the bottom of the 10th inning, Greg Yamamoto | SL

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MANOA — A new state champion will be crowned in Division II.

Two pitchers combined on a four-hitter as Kauai edged defending champion Kamehameha-Hawaii in 10 innings, 2-1, in the semifinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Baseball State Championships at Les Murakami Stadium Friday morning.

The Red Raiders, who won the Kauai Interscholastic Federation, notched their sixth consecutive win to improve to 12-3 and will make their first appearance in a state final since 2011.

"It's a very big win," said Kauai starting pitcher Christian Manera, who allowed a single unearned run on four hits in 6 2/3 innings of work. "All of us are proud just to beat the defending champions, the top dog in the state, we're really happy."

Manera, a 5-foot-10 junior right-hander, struck out three and walked none before he was removed with two outs in the bottom of the seventh due to the pitch count. He threw 81 pitches in the win, one day after he threw 30 pitches in Thursday's extra-innings quarterfinal win over Molokai.

"Any time you take out the best team it feels really good, so I've been in this situation before — being No. 1 (seed) and losing — so it's a tough thing, but that's a good team over here," Kauai coach Hank Ibia said. "They're going to be here for a long time, but today it went our way at certain times and our pitchers threw well to keep us in the game, but at the end anything could have happened, so overall these guys did good."

Manera threw 54 of his pitches for strikes. He recorded first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 25 batters he faced and got 10 swings and misses. Manera went to a three-ball count just once.

"Basically I was just trying to throw strikes and let my defense work," said Manera, who improved to 4-0 on the season with a 0.92 ERA. "The pitch count didn't bother me. I was just trying to throw my heart out today and do what I had to do to help the team win."

Sophomore reliever Ricky Rego took over for Manera in the bottom of the seventh and went on to pitch 3 1/3 scoreless inning to get the win. Rego walked four and struck out three and threw 42 pitches in his first outing of the state tournament.

"I was really proud of him just to come up in a big situation and being just a sophomore," Manera said of Rego. "He still can improve, but I'm really proud of him."

It was just the third appearance for Rego, a 5-foot-11 right-hander, of the season. He was limited by a back injury early in the year.

"He came back last week, a week-and-a-half ago. He didn't play in the (KIF championship game, then after that he came back and practiced, but he couldn't do anything for a while with that back," Ibia said. "He's been in big games before as a young boy, so taking a chance or not. I just believed that if he threw strikes we'd be OK, because he throws the ball hard, so he found himself today so that was nice."

The Red Raiders started their 10th inning rally with Tyler Oshima's one-out walk. Ibia put Oshima in motion on a hit-and-run with Sam Nakata at the plate. Nakata singled to left and Oshima went from first to third. After Kamehameha reliever Kyran Kai struck out clean-up hitter Jacob Borrero for the second out, Skyler Sadora hit a ground ball to second baseman Kalai Klask-Hoopii, who, instead of going to first to get Sadora, went to second for the potential force out. However, his throw was wide of the bag and out of the reach of shortstop Jaisten Cabatbat and allowed Oshima to score the go-ahead run from third.

Kamehameha-Hawaii got the tying run to second in the bottom of the 10th, but Rego got Kai to line out to right fielder Ethan Gray to end the game.

The Warriors left seven runners on base and committed a couple of base-running errors late in the game that led to inning-ending double plays in both the eighth and ninth innings.

"We just didn't execute when we had opportunities throughout the game and we had some mental lapses that kind of cost us," Kamehameha-Hawaiii coach Andy Correa said.

The Warriors, who rapped out 10 hits in Thursday's 8-0 win over Radford, had only one multi-hit inning Friday.

"They kept the ball down," Correa said of Red Raider pitching. "They kept the fastball down, we beat ‘em in the ground, so I guess we couldn't elevate the ball and they mixed it up, but basically we have to be able to get hit off them. Their pitching was good."

Kauai opened the scoring on Manera's two-out RBI double to score Borrero in the top of the second, but Kamehameha-Hawaii tied it in the bottom of the frame. Dustin Asuncion reached on an error, took second on a fielder's choice, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on Kobie Kinzie's sacrifice fly.

The Warriors used three pitchers in the loss. Starter Justyce Ishii allowed one run on three hits in three innings before giving way to Zakaia Michaels, who threw 5 2/3 innings of two-hit ball. Kai, who moved from second base to the mound with one out in the top of the ninth, was the losing pitcher.

Dan Ahuna batted 2 for 3 with a walk for Kamehameha-Hawaii, which fell to 17-3 on the season and 15-5 all-time in state tournament games. It will face Hawaii Prep for third place at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Nakata went 2 for 4 for the Red Raiders, who improved to 13-7 in state tournament games. They will try for their first state crown since 2011 and third overall.

Kauai will play third-seeded Damien, which defeated Hawaii Prep in the other semifinal, 14-3 (5 innings), in the 4 p.m. title game Saturday at Murakami Stadium.