Even on a bum left ankle sprained just minutes before he took the mound last night, Punahou School junior Jeeter Ishida pitched as strong as usual, notching a five-hitter with 10 strikeouts and one walk to help the Buffanblu fend off Hilo, 8-2, in the Wally Yonamine Foundation Baseball State Championship quarterfinals.

Three-time defending champ and No. 1-seeded Punahou improved to 15-1 in the regular and postseason and will face Kamehameha-Hawai'i (13-3) in tonight's 8 o'clock semifinals at Les Murakami Stadium.

Ishida, 6-foot, hard-throwing right-hander, suffered a mildly sprained ankle just minutes before last night's feature game as he slipped on the concrete dugout floor after going down the steps in his cleats.

"I didn't realize it was cement, and I think (the ankle) rolled over," Ishida said. "We just taped it up. It's the state tournament, so you do things you might not normally do ..."

Ishida was able to pitch, but did so from the stretch the entire game and was noticeably limping on some defensive plays. He was scheduled to bat for himself, but was scratched from the order in place of a designated hitter.

"We weren't sure he could even pitch, and I thought we might have to start somebody else," Buffanblu coach Eric Kadooka said. "But he gutted it out on one leg and gave us an awesome performance."

Punahou jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning after Paul Snieder's two-run triple and a passed ball, then added a run in the third on a delayed steal to make it 4-0. The Vikings (11-4) closed to 4-2 in the bottom of the third after Cortney Arruda's RBI double and a two-base error.

But the Buffanblu got a run back in the fourth on Evan Bisho's run-scoring single and made it 7-2 in the fifth on Tyler Young's two-run single.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.