Saint Louis' Rayson Romero makes a throw to first against Mililani. Evan Asato | SL

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MANOA -- Although the Crusaders exploded for 10 runs on 16 hits, Saint Louis hung its hat on defense to shut out Mililani to win their first title since 1974. It was a long road for Saint Louis after going unseeded after losing to Mid-Pacific in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship game. They blasted Roosevelt in the opening round and had to go through two tough seeded teams in Waiakea and Campbell, who were in the top five of the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings. In the end, the Crusaders achieved their ultimate goal.

“Pitching and defense wins championships and that’s what we had throughout this state tournament. That’s our mantra, we want to give teams three outs. If we can give teams three outs, we have a great chance on being on top for that day,” said Saint Louis coach George Gusman.

In the 2014 Wally Yonamine Foundation/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I State Championships, Saint Louis only allowed one run and committed one error. In their four tournament games, the Crusaders allowed 11 hits, while amassing 43 hits.  

“We only had one error, other than that, they made a lot of plays and the hard work really paid off for these guys,” said Saint Louis infield coach Vince Passas, who was a member of the 1974 championship team.

Senior first baseman, Jordan Mopas had 35 putouts and short stop Rayson Romero had nine putouts for the state tournament. Both players relish the opportunities to step up and help out the defense any way they can.

“I came up as a freshman and by my sophomore year, he (Gusman) stuck me at the starting role at short stop and ever since then I worked hard and give my teammates the best opportunity out there and trying to be the leader of the infield and even though I make mistakes here and there, they always pick me up and that’s the least I can do for them. I’m thankful and blessed to be a short stop on this team,” said Romero.

“I actually started off in the preseason as a second baseman and I got moved to first. I was pretty disappointed, but I knew it was to make the team better. All I wanted to do was to make the team better and for me, my role was to make every play I can and make my infielders look good,” said Mopas, on making an adjustment to help the team.

After Pono Anderson’s error in the top of the fourth to allow Sean Sonogini to get on base, short stop Rayson Romero followed up with a great double play. Adam Connell hit it to Romero, who tagged second base and threw it to Mopas for the second out.

“Basically an error in the state tournament, it could go for a run. I saw Pono and he was disappointed and it should’ve been an out. The ball was hit hard, it was a hit and run, the guy was coming in, I stuck with it, caught the ball, shuffled and flipped it over to first. I was lucky enough to get that play and that double play shifted the momentum and I’m glad I could helped out Pono and he deserved,” said Romero, on the double play.

“That was a huge play and it was a close play at second and to get that runner out at first, we snuffed things out right there. I wouldn’t trade Rayson Romero for any short stop in this entire state,” said Gusman.

The bats came alive early for the Crusaders and took an early 4-0 lead. With the lead, it gave the Saint Louis defense a lot of confidence to keep the lead going.

“Basically in the state tournament, anything can happen and we’ve seen top teams get scored on early and before the game the coaches talked to us and to come out to a good start and that’s what we did,” said Romero.

“It’s funny when you get four runs in the first inning, you take teams out of some of the things they might do, they can’t bunt, can’t run, hit and run and take a bigger gamble. So that was big getting four runs in the first inning,” said Gusman.

Players in different positions stepped up, when Saint Louis needed it most.

“They are all looking for the ground balls and all want to make plays. Ray made that double plays after that error. Tanner (Atiburcio) made that key play the night before in the semis and took a run away and we made the play at home with Mopas throwing to home plate. Everyone had a chance, everyone had to step up and Brendan Uchima at third base had a hell of a tournament. In that championship game against Mid-Pacific, he had a couple of errors that made him feel guilty about letting the team down. It’s a team game and he had a chance to redeem himself,” said Passas.

Many players and coaches credited the brotherhood of the team and the school that helped them get through the ups-and-downs of the season and ultimately winning a state championship.

“Our baseball team has a brotherhood and no matter the score, we’re always behind each other and we’re always supporting each other,” said Mopas.

“It stems from our school and our school at Saint Louis is a brotherhood and everyone played for each other and had each others’ back and all wanted a chance to make a play and had an attitude like they wanted the ground ball hit to them, instead of I hope the ball is not hit to me. It was a great team effort and represented the school really well and 40 years has been a long time and I hope this is the start of something new,” said Passas.