Damien slashes Hawaii Prep, 14-3

Damien's Akila Arecchi rounds third base in an Division II semifinal game Friday afternoon at Les Murakami Stadium. CJ Caraang | SL

MANOA — The Damien baseball team may be clad in black, but it has been white-hot offensively in its first-ever state tournament appearance.

Third-seeded Damien rattled off 14 hits and scored in all five innings to throttle unseeded Hawaii Prep in mercy rule fashion, 14-3, in the semifinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Division II state tournament at Les Murakami Stadium Friday afternoon.

The Monarchs (17-5), winners of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, move on to face Kauai (12-3) in Saturday's D2 II title game. First pitch is slated for 4:07 p.m.

"I'm just happy that all the work these guys put in over this past year got us to the final game," said third-year Damien coach Timo Donahue. "Being here (in the state tournament) and winning it would be the ultimate. We're just going to go out there and give it our best."

It was Damien's second straight win with a double-digit run total. The Monarchs defeated Farrington in the opening round of the tourney, 11-6. Donahue is hoping the bats continue to produce when his team faces the Red Raiders on Saturday.

"The guys are swinging the bats well," he said. "They're taking good approaches and as long as we throw strikes and play good defense, it should be a good game tomorrow."

The Monarchs put their offense on display early on in the day, scoring two runs on three hits to take an early lead after the first inning.

Leadoff hitter Akila Arecchi went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and Kaimana Cameron drove in four runs on a 3-for-3 performance to lead the Monarchs at the plate.

Damien starting pitcher Grayson Bueno retired the first Hawaii Prep batters of the afternoon, but ran into some trouble in the top of the second. Ka Makani was able to load the bases with one out thanks to a fielding error and consecutive hits to put the Monarchs in a bind.

Hawaii Prep scored its first run of the day after Bueno beaned Tristan Sienkiewicz to plate Matthew Hughes to make it 2-1. Bueno struck out Skylar Roque-Sunahara one batter later, but gave up a walk to Jonah Hurney to score the tying run.

With the score knotted at 2, the Monarchs turned to Kaycee Natividad to get them out of the inning. The junior pitcher walked the first batter he faced, but got out of the jam with a groundout to third base to leave three Hawaii Prep runners on base.

The Damien defense was flawless the rest of the way. Natividad finished the game with no hits and two strikeouts to pick up his second win of the season.

"He's been a guy that came in during the season that we could count on throwing strikes," Donahue said on Natividad. "At that point in time of the game, that's basically what we wanted."

The Monarchs' bats followed suit. Damien scored five runs on three hits and two Hawaii Prep errors in the bottom of the frame to take the lead for good after two innings, 7-3.

Damien added runs in the following three innings for good measure as well. Chayne Wayton's pinch-hit RBI double in the bottom of the fifth induced the 10-run mercy rule with no outs to punch the Monarchs' ticket into the state final.

Hawaii Prep's Finn Richmond was charged with the loss, getting chased after 1 and 2/3 innings.

Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].