Mid Pacific's Trey Saito finished his senior season a perfect 7-0 with a 3-1 victory over Mililani. Eugene Tanner | SL

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Mid-Pacific senior Marcus Doi points to the sky after hitting a go-ahead 2-run single against Mililani. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Brandon Ching | SL

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MANOA – The moment was years in the making and Trey Saito and Marcus Doi made sure they were ready for it.

Led by the senior batterymates, Mid-Pacific battled its way to a hard-fought 3-1 win over Mililani Tuesday in the title game of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Baseball State Championships at Les Murakami Stadium.

Saito allowed just one run in seven innings as the winning pitcher. He scattered eight hits, walked two and struck out two. Doi, the Owls' catcher, put his team ahead for good in the top of the seventh with his two-run single to left field.

“We did this all year,” Doi said of Mid-Pacific's late-game heroics. “Some games we were blown out, some games we had to fight back. I never doubted this team. This team fought all the way through summer ball, all the way through today and we proved why we're the number one team in the state right now.”

Doi, who has signed with the University of Hawaii, was 0-for-3 until his go-ahead, seventh inning base hit. He grounded into a double play in the top of the first inning, struck out on three pitches in the third and flied out to centerfield in the fifth.

“He didn't look very good in the beginning (of the game),” Owls' coach Dunn Muramaru said. “I guess he just comes through – the good guys come through in the clutch times.”

Before he stepped into the batter's box in the seventh, Doi took a few moments to himself to calm his nerves.

“I was just thinking to relax, relax, relax,” Doi said. “All the coaches were telling me to just relax up there, don't try to do too much, don't try to be perfect. I just tried to barrel the ball up and that's what I did and it came through.”

Doi pulled an 0-1 inside pitch to the left side of the infield and the Trojan defense was unable to make a play on it.

“It was just a fastball – middle, in – and I just turned on it,” Doi said.

Ryne Saiki, who got on with a bases-loaded walk earlier in the inning, scored on the play from third and Cal Muramaru, who reached on Mililani's only error of the game, scored from second.

Mid-Pacific added an insurance run two batters later when Bryce Asao singled to centerfield to score Quintin-John Collier.

“Marcus is a quality player – we've been watching him for a couple years – he's got the size, he's got the strength and he's going to be a very special player for UH for the next couple years,” Mililani coach Mark Hirayama said. “(Trojans' starting pitcher) Kanoa (Hironaka) was able to keep him at bay for most of the game and again, hats off to them, they didn't give up and that's what it takes to be a champion.”

Saito certainly did his part, getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the second, and stranding six runners in four different innings.

“He's just a bulldog,” Muramaru said of Saito. “He didn't have his best stuff today. Before the fourth inning, I was talking to (assistant coach) Craig Hayashi and I kept telling him, 'We don't have our best stuff,' and he said, 'Well, that's the best we got out there so let's go with him.'”

The Owls' defense – namely shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and third baseman Brent Sakurai – made several key defensive plays to negate scoring opportunities for the Trojans.

“Usually I don't try to strike batters out, I just let my defense work, because I trust them – they're probably one of the best in the state,” Saito said. “They always come through for me and I always can trust them and I'm going to miss them next year.”

After the Owls' offense took a 3-1 lead in the top of the seventh, Saito retired the Mililani side in order to seal his team's first state championship since 2002.

“For a while there, I thought we lost our sixth state championship game,” Muramaru said. “(Mililani) had all the momentum and it was just a matter of us trying to get on.”

Hirayama, who was a longtime assistant coach at Kamehameha, has faced off against many of Muramaru's teams over the years.

“You can never count them out, they're such a quality team and they made the plays when they needed to, put the ball in play when they had two runners in scoring position, took advantage of a couple of our mistakes and that's how it goes,” Hirayama said of Mid-Pacific.

Well after the game's final pitch, Doi was still in disbelief as he clutched the state championship trophy.

“Like coach Dunn said, there's no other feeling like winning a state title – he was right and I can't believe we did it,” Doi said.