The Friendly Isle turned out to be the appropriate place for the Saint Anthony baseball team to develop camaraderie and character.

A retreat to Moloka'i before the season started helped to send the Maui Interscholastic League champions to O'ahu for their first state tournament appearance since 1991. The Trojans are the fourth seed in the 49th annual tournament that starts today at Les Murakami Stadium. It is sponsored by the Wally Yonamine Foundation.

"We took a three-day trip to Moloka'i to work on team-building," first-year coach Shane Dudoit said. "We practiced from 6 in the morning to 4 at night. We did a lot of character-building games. The key was getting everybody to trust each other."

Perhaps it is the reason the Trojans are the only team in the tournament without any seniors.

"Being the kids are so young, they don't understand pressure situations," Dudoit said. "They have fun."

And it's not like the Trojans are junior-dominated, either. Pitcher/right fielder Michael Jahns and catcher Aaron Uehara are the only junior starters. The rest are sophomores and freshmen, Dudoit said. The freshmen starters include first baseman David Sifton, center fielder Aronne Santos, left fielder Rory Racadio and shortstop Jordan Kahalekai-Bermoy. The sophomores are right fielder/pitcher Patrick Wilhelm-Ioane, third baseman Matthew McCraney and second baseman Ryan Rodriguez.

For the second consecutive year, the MIL was split into geographical divisions. The Trojans won the East title with an 11-3 record, while Kamehameha won the West at 9-3. (Their regular-season schedules are uneven because there are five teams in the East and four in the West.) The division champions played a best-of-three series to determine the overall MIL champion. Kamehameha then beat MIL tournament champion Baldwin, a perennial state tournament participant, to get the league's second state berth.

As sort of the new kid on the block in the state tournament, Dudoit said it wasn't a lock that his team would be one of the top four seeds among the five league champions. The top four seeds have a first-day bye. It also wasn't that comforting knowing that Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation champion Kaua'i High had beaten the Trojans and other Maui teams in a preseason tournament. Dudoit even made airline reservations to arrive here yesterday in case they were unseeded and had to play today. But he said people assured him the MIL is considered a strong league for baseball and that his team would likely get seeded.

"We're fortunate just to be here," Dudoit said.

But the Trojans aren't flying below any radar. It seems people know they're the real deal. Kamehameha-Hawai'i beat the Trojans in preseason, but coach Andy Correa was still impressed.

"Saint Anthony is pretty tough," Correa said. "When we played them they happened to be short-handed. They can hit."

The Trojans play tomorrow at 5 p.m. against the winner of the opening-round game between Kamehameha-Hawai'i and Kailua.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.