Hilo High’s Devin Saltiban cleared the fence at UH-Hilo, while down the road Waiakea sprayed hits all over its field.
On to the main event: Round 3 for the Vikings and Warriors at 6 p.m. Saturday at UHH for the BIIF Division I baseball championship.
As usual, the semifinals Thursday were little more than shortened preliminaries as the rivals each secured berths to the HHSAA tournament. The Warriors beat Keaau 18-0 in four innings, getting two hits from six different players: Kedren Kinzie, Devin Garza, Mason Hirata, Joshua Ward, Elijah Igawa and Kaden Oshiro.
Saltiban drove in six, homering with two triples in the Vikings’ 15-0, four-inning win against Kealakehe.
The Waiakea (7-0) swept the season series against Hilo (5-2).
Kinzie drove in four runs, Garza had three RBIs and Ward and Hirata each had two. Kaleb Wada gave up one hit with three strikeouts to get the victory.
Tyler Halemanu struck out six in tossing a one-hitter for the Vikings. Tobey Jackson, Kaynan Kaku, and Dylan Villanueva also had multiple hits.