Roosevelt senior pitcher Kelson Okimoto continued his mastery of Castle yesterday, holding off the Knights to lift the Rough Riders to a 3-2 victory in the first round of the Wally Yonamine Foundation Baseball State Championships.

Roosevelt (10-7), which took fifth place in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association, improved to 10-7 in the regular and postseason and will face No. 1 seed and four-time defending state champion Punahou (13-5-1) in today's 4:30 p.m. quarterfinal at Les Murakami Stadium.

Okimoto, a 5-foot-4 left-hander, scattered eight hits and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh inning by inducing a flyout to center field. In three starts against Castle this season, Okimoto is 2-0 with five runs allowed in 20 innings.

"I'm still taking it in," he said of his latest victory over the Knights, the biggest so far. "My arm was hanging (in the seventh) ... but my defense helped me out a lot. I just let them hit it and the defense made the plays."

The Rough Riders took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first after leadoff batter TJ Bae reached on a strike three passed ball, stole second, advanced to third on an error and scored on a wild pitch. Castle (10-6) tied it in the second inning when Marcus Ofia-Stevens walked with two outs, stole second and scored on Keola Jarrett's single to right.

Roosevelt went up 3-1 in the third after Aaron Yamane and Tyler Nitahara scored on Lowen Kaho'oilihala's single. The OIA third-place Knights closed it to 3-2 in the sixth after Bryan Raines led off with a walk, stole second and scored on Jarrett's bloop single to right.

Castle then loaded the bases in the seventh on two walks and an error, but Okimoto got the last batter to hit a high fly ball to center for the final out.

"We were hoping for one clutch hit, but sometimes you don't get it," Knights co-coach Chad Uyehara said. "(Okimoto) hides the ball and he has kind of an awkward delivery, and he mixes his speeds well. He really did a number on us this year."

ROOSEVELT (10-7) 102 000 0—3 6 0

CASTLE (10-6) 010 001 0—2 8 1

Kelson Okimoto and Tyler Nitahara. Pulama Silva and Coby Agres. W — Okimoto. L — Silva.

Leading hitters — Roosevelt: Lowen Kaho'oilihala 2-3, 2 RBIs. Castle: Keola Jarrett 2-3, 2 RBIs; Agres 2-4; Kaliko Cayetano-Tamashiro 2-4.

Read Wes' blog on prep sports at http://preptalk.honadvblogs.com.