St. Louis catcher, Taylor Meilleur, tags out an Iolani runner at home plate. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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MANOA — Defending Division I state champion Saint Louis opened up league play on a good note, defeating Iolani in a 9-4 win at Les Murakami Stadium Friday evening.

The Crusaders racked up 10 total hits to notch runs in six of the seven innings and had Iolani playing catch up in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu regular season opener for both teams.

With a relatively young team this year, Saint Louis coach George Gusman was pleased that his team was able to pull out the victory.

"Wins are tough to come by," he said. "We're just happy to win. It's so hard to win in the ILH.

"We're a total new team. We only got two returning starters. The seniors that we have didn't play much last year. We're very inexperienced all the way around. We start two sophomores and three juniors. It's going to be growing pains for us."

One of the young players that played well for the Crusaders was John Kea. The junior right fielder batted 2 for 2 in his first varsity start. He also had a 3 RBI double in the top of the third inning to give Saint Louis a 6-1 lead.

On the mound for the Crusaders was Pono Anderson, a senior right-handed pitcher who has signed his letter of intent to play for the University of Hawaii. Anderson gave up four runs on five hits, but was able to pitch a complete game to pick up the win. He also had four strikeouts against four walks.

"I almost went and got him in the middle," Gusman said on Anderson. "I didn't think he was attacking, but he finished out strong."

Saint Louis was able to capitalize on a handful of Iolani errors to build an early 3-0 lead. After Iolani picked up the first earned run of the game in the bottom of the second, the Crusaders' bats came alive in the top of the third, which culminated in Kea's 3 RBI double.

"Scoring always boosts us, we always get hyped up from it," said Kea. 

The Crusaders added insurance runs in the fourth, fifth, and seventh innings to help hold off a potential late run by Iolani.

Bronson Ichimura, Iolani's starting pitcher, gave up eight hits in 3 1/3 innings work before giving getting replaced by Kaimana Bartolome. Brandon Yanagi and Everett Lau also saw time on the mound during the seventh inning.

Both teams will play tomorrow at Hans L'Orange Field; Iolani will face Kamehameha at 9 a.m. and Saint Louis has Punahou at 2 p.m.