Punahou starting pitcher Reece Kiriu was literally and figuratively in control last night.

The senior right-hander pitched nothing like his two-inning stint Thursday in pitching the Buffanblu to a 4-0 win over Saint Louis in the championship of the 50th Wally Yonamine Foundation state baseball tournament at Les Murakami Stadium.

Kiriu fired a three-hitter, walking none and striking out eight in the complete-game performance. It was a far cry from Thursday's 9-8 squeaker past Roosevelt in the quarterfinals. He gave up five runs, four hits and four walks in two innings.

"Last time, I was just rushing," said Kiriu, who plays second base when not on the mound. "I slowed it down and tried to keep the ball down."

He was out of rhythm in the Roosevelt game, said Punahou assistant Derek Tatsuno, who pitched 'Aiea to a championship win against McKinley in the 1976 tournament.

"At times tonight, he fell into the same situation," Tatsuno said. "But he knows the adjustments. He went out and did a hell of a job."

Indeed.

The Crusaders had only four base runners, three on singles by Moses Samia, Travis Gonzaga and Tamatoa DeMello, and one from an error. But only one reached second and that was the only time Saint Louis led off an inning with a base runner (Samia's second-inning single).

Kiriu faced just three batters over the minimum. Kaden Kamoe, who reached on shortstop Josh Bniniski's throwing error, was gunned down by catcher Zachery Kometani trying to steal second. Kiriu ran counts with three balls only five times, never losing any of those batters.

"He threw pretty well today," said Kometani, who said he will play at the University of San Diego. "He was throwing pretty hard today, even though he threw 70 pitches on Thursday. Pretty much everything was working well, but his off-speed was awesome today."

Kiriu showed good command of all his pitches, especially his curve. Five of his eight strikeouts were on called third strikes on the curve. He threw 97 pitches, got eight grounders for outs to four air outs (fly balls or pop ups).

This was the sixth meeting this season between the two Interscholastic League of Honolulu rivals. The Crusaders won the regular-season title, the Buffanblu the tournament and overall titles. They were so familiar with their opponent, they had a plan on how they would attack the Saint Louis lineup.

"We've seen them six times, so we knew how to play them," Kiriu said.

Kometani said he was worried before the game because Kiriu had thrown a lot on Thursday. But after striking out the first two batters of the game and getting the third on a grounder to second, Kometani knew Kiriu was going to be fine.

"Coming into the game, we weren't really sure because he pitched on Thursday," said Kometani, who had a nice game himself by batting 2 for 3. "But he came out, he felt good and he looked great out there. He had everything working for him. He was awesome."