A senior from Saipan in his first year of American high school baseball pitched 4 2/3 innings of shutout relief yesterday to help Maui High hold off Kamehameha-Hawai'i, 6-3, in the Wally Yonamine Foundation Baseball State Championship quarterfinals.

The No. 4 seed and Maui Interscholastic League champion Sabers (14-3) will face No. 1 seed Punahou (14-5-1) in today's 4:30 p.m. semifinal.

It is Maui High's first semifinal appearance since 1997, when the Sabers ended up fourth.

All of this big-stage atmosphere is brand new to pitcher Joaquin (Jacob) Babauta, a 5-foot-6 right-hander who grew up playing in the Northern Mariana Islands before moving to Maui in February 2007. He was not eligible in time to play last year, but played a key role in relief throughout this season and came through in the Sabers' biggest win so far yesterday.

"He's been big for us all year, and he was big today picking up this win," Maui coach Lee Yonamine said.

Kamehameha-Hawai'i took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after Makana Cazimero led off with a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch, to third on Blake Amaral's single to left and scored on Russell Kackley's single to right.

The Sabers tied it in the second as Travis Manuel walked to lead off and scored on Jordan Jim-Keene's triple to right-center. Maui then went up 3-1 in the third after Mitch Crim scored on a delayed steal and Jordan Inamasu came home on an error after being caught in a rundown.

But the Warriors roared back in the bottom half, as Cazimero led off with a double to right and Kolten Wong followed with a single to right, setting the table for Kackley's two-run double to right that made it 3-3.

That's when Babauta — whom teammates call "Saipan" — was brought in.

After hitting his first batter, he induced two infield pop-ups to stop the rally and then allowed no runs and only three hits the rest of the way.

"I used my curveball, fastball, splitter," Babauta said. "I just threw strikes and tried to be ahead in the count."

The Sabers took the lead for good in the fourth after Tevan Devera singled with one out, advanced to second on Crim's bloop single to right, to third on a walk and scored on a wild pitch. Inamasu then brought Crim home with a sacrifice fly to left to make it 5-3.

Maui added another run in the seventh after Jim-Keene singled and scored on Devera's two-out triple to right-center.

Kamehameha-Hawai'i senior right-hander Blake Amaral, who went seven innings and faced 29 batters in Wednesday's first-round victory over Kailua, pitched 4 2/3 innings of relief yesterday.

MAUI (14-3) 012 200 1—6 9 0

KS-HAWAI'I (10-4-1) 102 000 0—3 9 2

Mitch Crim, Jacob Babauta (3) and Jordan Inamasu. Kulani Soares, Blake Amaral (2) and Kolten Wong. W — Babauta. L — Amaral.

Leading hitters — Maui: Crim 3-5, double, 2 runs; Jordan Jim-Keene 2-4, triple; Tevan Devera 2-3, triple. Kamehameha-Hawai'i: Makana Cazimero 2-4, double, 2 runs; Wong 2-4; Amaral 2-3 double; Russell Kackley 2-4, 2 doubles, 3 RBIs.

Reported by Kyle Galdeira

PEARL CITY 5, MPI 4

Kurt Poentis scored from third base on Bryson Namba's double-play grounder in the top of the ninth inning to lift the Chargers (14-2) past the Owls (16-5).

No. 2 seed and O'ahu Interscholastic Association champion Pearl City will face Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up Saint Louis in today's 7 p.m. semifinal at Les Murakami Stadium.

Poentis had reached on a leadoff walk and advanced to third on Bryson Nakamura's hit-and-run single to left.

MPI's Aaron Fujiki hit a triple to the right-field corner with two outs and an 0-2 count to put the tying run just 90 feet away, but sophomore reliever Kahana Neal got a strikeout on a 1-2 pitch to end the game.

PEARL CITY (14-2) 012 010 001—5 7 1

MID-PACIFIC (16-5) 200 011 000—4 6 1

Cory Yuh, Kahana Neal (7) and Carlton Tanabe. Rob Dittrick, Gavin Kinoshita (3), Kase Kaneko (9), Dylan Tawata (9) and Aaron Fujiki. W — Neal. L — Kaneko.

Leading hitters — Pearl City: Bryson Nakamura 2-5, triple; Ryno Acosta double. Mid-Pacific: Derek Tan 2-4, RBI; Fujiki triple, Todd Nagamine, triple.

SAINT LOUIS 5, WAIAKEA 0

Chris Chung pitched a two-hitter with six strikeouts as the Crusaders advanced to today's 7 p.m. semifinal against No. 2 seed and O'ahu Interscholastic Association champion Pearl City.

Saint Louis took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after Kyle Gonzaga walked with two outs, advanced to second on an error and scored on Marcus Kimura's single to center. The Crusaders made it 2-0 in the second as Lucas Gonsalves hit a two-out triple to the right-field corner and scored on Tamatoa DeMello's single.

They added three runs in the fifth on two hits — including Moses Samia's two-run single to center — and two errors.

WAIAKEA (12-2) 000 000 0—0 2 4

SAINT LOUIS (18-4) 110 030 X—5 5 0

Eric Hernandez, Brian Alben (5) and Kody Ono. Christopher Chung and Moses Samia. W — Chung. L — Hernandez.

Leading hitters — Waiakea: Thad Yasuhara 2-3. Saint Louis: Samia 2 RBIs; Lucas Gonsalves 2-2, triple, 2 runs.

Reported by Kyle Galdeira

CONSOLATION

KAILUA 11, CASTLE 1

Burton Talaesea doubled, homered and drove in three runs to propel the Surfriders in a consolation bracket game.

CASTLE (10-7) 000 10— 1 5 3

KAILUA (13-4) 204 5X—11 8 1

Bryan Raines, Micah Koki (4) and Coby Agres. Jared Tamanaha and Keenan Tanaka, Aaron Tai. W — Tamanaha. L — Raines.

Leading hitters — Kailua: Ryan Kinoshita 2-3, double, 3 runs; Burton Talaesea 2-3, double, homer, 2 runs, 3 RBIs; Alika Ramseyer-Ho double; Keoki Reis-Moniz double, 2 RBIs.

Reported by Kyle Galdeira

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