WAIPAHU — Cinderella is in the final four. 

Zion Cornog pitched a four-hit complete game to lift PAC-5 to a 3-0 win over perennial powerhouse Baldwin in the quarterfinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Division I Baseball State Championships at Hans L'Orange Park on Thursday. 

The unseeded Wolfpack (11-4) will be making their first appearance in the D1 state semifinals after they recorded their second win in less than 24 hours. 

The Bears (13-3), who are seeded fourth in the 12-team field, were coming off of a first-round bye on Wednesday. They saw their string of six consecutive semifinals appearances come to an end. 

PAC-5, the second-place team out of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, barely escaped a seventh-inning comeback attempt by Kaiser late Wednesday night — a game that ended near midnight — only to return to the diamond about 16 hours later. 

"I think the only thing was the lack of sleep and whatnot and I'm just happy the boys came out and they were ready to scrap from the get-go and the focus level was there," Wolfpack coach Reyn Sugai said. 

"The state tournament is never easy so we just always appreciate that and we've just got to roll with the punches whenever, you know? Whatever time, whatever place, delays — anything like that — we've still got to show up to the field with everything we go," Sugai added. 

PAC-5 followed the lead of Cornog. The 6-foot-1 Cornog was masterful in his ninth appearance of the year. Cornog out-dueled fellow right-handed junior Jayden Perry-Waikiki, the veteran ace of the Baldwin staff. 

Cornog recorded his first complete-game shutout of the season. He overcame three errors from his defense and three hit batsmen by pitching to contact. Cornog got Baldwin batters to hit into six ground-ball outs and nine fly-ball outs. He registered first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 29 total batters he faced. 

"As a pitcher I don't focus on strikeouts or big things because I know my defense got my back, so as long as I throw strikes and get some ground balls, we're going to get some quick work," said Cornog, who threw 60 of his 94 pitches for strikes. 

Cornog recorded only four strikeouts, but more importantly, did not issue any walks. He got to only five three-ball counts and just two Baldwin baserunners reached third base. 

"That was gritty and that was exactly what we needed, (for him) just to throw strikes, be competitive and on top of that he was on, too, so his stuff was really, really working well off of each other and hats off to that guy; that's huge for us," Sugai said of Cornog, who lowered his earned run average to 1.89. 

Cornog improved to 4-2 on the year. He made a chance to his repertoire while he was warming up in the bullpen before Thursday's game. 

"I made a little change before the game. Instead of throwing a change-up, I just threw a slower two-seam (fastball) and that worked really well for me — that and the curveball — so that was nice," Cornog said. 

The Bears left eight runners stranded on base, including four in scoring position. 

Cornog worked out of a major jam in the bottom of the fifth inning, when Baldwin had the bases loaded with one out and Kaden Anderson, the No. 3 batter in the lineup, due up, but not before Sugai utilized a mound visit to address Cornog. 

After Josiah Yamada was hit by a pitch to lead off the Baldwin fifth, Cornog got ninth batter, Jayson Kahaleanu, to pop up for the first out. However, Kai Watanabe and Marley Sebastian followed with consecutive one-out singles to put Cornog's pitch count at 57 and trigger the stoppage by Sugai. 

Although shortstop Alika Ahu was warming up during Sugai's chat with Cornog, the third-year PAC-5 coach said there was no thought of pulling Cornog before he crossed the 61-pitch threshold, which comes with two days of mandatory rest per HHSAA pitch count rules. 

"Oh, no, not at all. With the way that he pitched it was his game. We were just trying to slow him down in that scenario and get some of the other guys just throwing a little bit, but it worked out. He stepped up and got the two big outs right after that," Sugai said. 

Cornog worked the count to 0-2 against Anderson, then got the lefty to fly out to left field for the second out. Clean-up batter Kolaiah-Dhusti Villa took the first pitch of his ensuing at-bat for a ball before Cornog induced him to line out to centerfielder Jaxon Cadiz for the third out. 

"That's everything. I mean, coach Reyn came up onto the mound, he told us, ‘You're doing great, just keep rolling,' and that's exactly what we did. I mean, full trust in my defense. I just gotta throw strikes and I know they're going to get outs. In my opinion we have the best defense in the state, so we've got to keep that working," Cornog said. 

It was PAC-5 offense that gave Cornog an early cushion to work it. The Wolfpack pushed across two runs on two hits and were aided by two Baldwin errors in the top of the first inning. 

Alika Ahu led off with a single and came around to score two batters later when his younger brother, Austen, tripled to right. 

"I just saw that fastball high and out and I just got my barrels out there," Austen Ahu said. 

Colten Amai Nakagawa, the next batter for the Wolfpack, brought Austen Ahu home with an RBI-sacrifice fly to left just three pitches later. 

In the bottom of the first, Austen Ahu came up with an outfield assist that kept the Bears off the board. 

After Sebastian reached on an error with one out, Anderson singled off of Cornog to right. Sebastian took second on the Anderson hit and rounded third aggressively. However, Austen Ahu fired a rocket on target to catcher Thomas Mitchell, who fielded the throw and applied the tag on Sebastian just in front of the plate for the second out. 

"I saw the ball come to me and all I was focused on was grabbing the ball first and then I saw (Sebastian) go home and I just let it rip on the line," Austen Ahu said. 

Sugai praised the younger Ahu for coming up firing on the play. 

"He's a baller. I mean, he's been dealing with some arm stuff, that's why he hasn't necessarily been pitching. I mean, he has a strong arm and that was always there, but he's just a competitor and when we need him he's always willing to step up, make a big swing or big play in that scenario and just be a dude for us," Sugai said of the 6-foot sophomore. 

The Wolfpack's two-run lead held through four innings before they added an insurance run in the top of the fifth. Cadiz reached via one-out single to center. Cadiz moved into scoring position via stolen base, then came home two batters later on a single off the bat of Amai Nakagawa past the shortstop. 

Amai Nakagawa (2 for 2) and Cadiz (2 for 4) paired hits for PAC-5, which tallied eight hits off of Perry-Waikiki. 

Watanabe (2 for 4, double) accounted for half of the Bears' four hits off of Cornog. 

Cornog said the quick turnaround from Wednesday's late-night win over Kaiser to Thursday's blanking of Baldwin was almost surreal. 

"Wolves gotta eat. I mean, we literally finished our game — we were at this field today, early morning — so to come back here, win it again, it just feels amazing," he described. 

Austen Ahu added that the team's collective desire to win superseded any potential for fatigue.

"We've been hungry from the get-go this season. We were always going to come out hungry and that's what we've been doing recently," Ahu added. 

PAC-5 will now face top-seeded Waiakea in the 7 p.m. semifinal Friday at Les Murakami Stadium. 

The Warriors (12-0) made light work of Moanalua in the nightcap of Thursday's quarterfinal quadruple header at Hans L'Orange Park. 

Right-handed pitcher Logen Doran racked up seven strikeouts against two walks and gave up a single hit over three innings of work before he gave to Zian Wery, who allowed one run on three hits in two innings of relief against Na Menehune (9-8-1). 

Doran helped his own cause with a bases-clearing double to left that was part of a big third inning for Waiakea. It sent 13 batters to the plate in the bottom of the third and scored nine runs off of five hits and benefitted from four Moanalua errors in the frame. 

Na Menehune totaled six errors, which the Warriors parlayed into seven unearned runs. 

Connor Wallace batted 3 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored and Daylen Soon was 2 for 2 with a walk and two runs scored in the win. 

Moanalua's Kolten Miyoshi was tagged for six runs, five earned, on seven hits and four walks in 2 2/3 innings pitched and was pegged with the loss. 

Na Menehune, the fifth-place team out of the Oahu Interscholastic Association, was coming off of a 5-4 win in 10 innings Wednesday over Pearl City.

Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Waiakea has allowed only eight runs all year. 

The Warriors, who reached the state title game a year ago, were coming off of a bye in Wednesday's first round. 

Moanalua was seeking its first appearance in the semifinals since 2011, when it lost to Pearl City in the final. 

In earlier quarterfinals Thursday, third-seeded Mililani run-ruled Kamehameha-Hawaii by a score of 11-1 in six innings and second-seeded Kamehameha beat Hilo by a 7-1 margin. 

The Trojans (14-2) and Warriors (13-2) will face off in the 4 p.m. semifinal Friday at Murakami Stadium. 

In consolation games at Hans L'Orange Park Friday, Hilo (10-6) will take on KS-Hawaii (9-5) at 11:30 a.m. and Moanalua will meet Baldwin at 2 p.m.