Kailua's Joey Cantillo throws a pitch to the plate against Roosevelt. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Kailua's Lawson Faria jumps up to make a catch at third base. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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KAILUA - Freshman pitcher Joey Cantillo will not turn 15 until midway through his sophomore year at Kailua High. Still, he showed the poise of a veteran with four scoreless innings of middle relief to allow the No. 5 Surfriders to rally past Roosevelt, 4-3, Wednesday at Kailua.

"I saw him growing because I coached him," Kailua coach Corey Ishigo said. "He's same age as my son; we've been with each other for awhile, so he's been pitching our big games since he was 11 years old.

"He's not scared of the situation, doesn't' matter his age. He's tough."

Wednesday's game was big. With the win, the Surfriders (9-2) can clinch their seventh O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red East title in eight years with a regular-season ending win at Kaiser, 11 a.m. Saturday. Moanalua (8-3) can only hope for a Kaiser win, but still need to win its regular-season finale Monday when Na Menehune play Roosevelt at Stevenson Middle School field.

The loss denies Roosevelt (7-4) any chance of the top seed, but it is still alive for the second seed. The top two seeds draw first-round bye for the OIA Red Tournament, which starts April 29. The top six teams earn Division I state tournament berths.

The southpaw Cantillo pitched four-hitless innings of relief, retiring 10 in a row at one juncture, while walking two to get credit for the win.

"That was big," Kailua second baseman Brendan Odo said of Cantillo. "He's a freshman, but when it's crunch time, I know he'll perform."

Odo's sacrifice fly to center capped a three-run sixth that pulled the Surfriders ahead. Dustin Imanaka moved from shortstop to the mound to pitch the seventh, allowing a single, but stranding the potential tying run on third by striking out Reece Okura to earn the save.

The 'Riders were up 3-1 with runners at first and second with no out in the top of the third inning when Cantillo, a left-hander, was summoned from the bullpen to replace Kailua starting pitcher Royce Komesu, who was tagged for three runs and seven hits in two-plus innings.

After falling behind 2-1, Cantillo retired Aaron Emoto on a foul bunt pop up to the catcher for the first out. He then got Jonah Sasahara to pop out to first and stranded the runners by getting Riki Kobayashi on a fly out to right.

"I knew I needed to get outs and as long as I didn't give up any runs, our offense was going to get on the board," said Cantillo, who turns 15 on Dec. 18.

Cantillo relied on his off-speed pitches to keep the Rough Riders off-balanced. "My fastball wasn't there all the time, so I depended a lot on my curveball," he said.

Kailua took a 1-0 lead on Roosevelt starter Jarron Maemori in the first inning. Odo led off with a double to right-center and an out later went to third on Dalton Kalama's single to right. Odo rounded third, but stopped when he saw the throw returned to the infield, but the throw got past the catcher, allowing Odo to score.

But Roosevelt jumped on Kailua starter Komesu in the second inning. Okura led off with a double to left-center, took third on a passed ball and scored on catcher Emoto's single to left-center. Courtesy runner Taylor Torres went to second on Sasahara's sacrifice, took third when Kobayashi grounded out to third and scored on Nick Matsuoka's single to center to put the Rough Riders up, 2-1. Brandon Leong's single sent Matsuoka to second, the four hit allowed by Komesu in the inning, before Dustin Tsukano grounded out to third to end the inning.

Roosevelt continued to hit Komesu to start the third. Kainalu Pitoy opened with a flare single to left, stole second, but could only take third on Keola Tamanaha's double center, as Pitoy had to hold up to see if the fly would be caught. With runners at second and third, Kailua brought its infield in case it had to make a play at the plate. But Okura's flare single to right scored Pitoy, but Tamanaha held second to see if the fly would be caught. That ended Komesu's day and rest was taken care of by Cantillo.

"He shut us down," Roosevelt coach Les Loo said. "Actually, we let him off the hook. We had him on the ropes when we couldn't move the runners. Because of that, we had to hit away with one out because the runners did not advance."

Cantillo had help from nature, too. In the fifth, Pitoy, Tamanaha and Okura hit hard fly balls for outs.

"We hit three ropes to left field, the wind killed and the guys made the plays," Loo said. "Can't help. We hit the ball solid three times. That's the breaks."

Maemori nursed his 3-1 lead until the fifth. Noah Auld led off with a ground single to left and was lifted for pinch runner Awa Byers, who took second on Pilopo Kupahu's single to right. Imanaka tried to bunt the runners over, but instead reached on a single to third to load the bases. Jameson White's two-run single to right tied the game at 3, but on the play, the right fielder misplayed the bounce, allowing Imanaka to move from second to third. Odo's sacrifice fly to center brought home the go-ahead run, although White was doubled-off trying to take second on the throw home.

"It's good to see them bounce back after we were down a couple runs," Ishigo said. "They didn't give up. They just fought to the end."