Campbell starting pitcher Markus Ramos celebrates with teammates after driving in the tying run on a two-RBI hit in the bottom of the sixth inning. Spencer Honda | SL

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Kekahi Reiny Aloy pumps his teammates up after bringing in the go-ahead run with a single to left field. Spencer Honda | SL

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MANOA — Markus Ramos picked himself up Thursday morning.

The senior batted 2 for 3 and drove in three runs to help No. 5 Campbell to a 5-4 win over No. 8 Hilo in the quarterfinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Division I Baseball State Championships at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Sabers (16-1) overcame a rough outing from Ramos on the mound with three runs in the sixth inning to rally past the Big Island Interscholastic Federation-champion Vikings (14-3), who saw their seven-game win streak come to an end.

Campbell faced a 4-2 deficit after five innings, but its offense came alive in the top of the sixth. Dylan Ramon led off with a single and took two bases on a Nicholas Sampson double to put two runners in scoring position. Two batters later, Ramos tied it with his two-run single to left.

"He came up big," Sabers coach Rory Pico said. "That at bat, he didn't look too good on the first two swings, but he fouled a couple pitches off and then, you know, I guess he regained his composure and was able to put decent barrel on one of those pitches and fortunately it got down."

Ramos fell behind in the count 0-2 and fouled off the next two pitches from Hilo pitcher Joey Jarneski, before finding a hole in the defense.

"I knew he was going to come with a first-pitch fastball, so I got a little too aggressive and I swung at that and then after that he threw me a slider that was way off (the plate)," Ramos said. "He kept throwing me sliders so by the time I saw the fourth one, I knew it was coming and I knew how it was going to break and I knew what swing to put on that pitch."

Ramos said he was eager — perhaps a little too much — to compensate at the plate for his struggles on the mound.

Kekahi Reiny Aloy pumps his teammates up after bringing in the go-ahead run with a single to left field. Spencer Honda | SL    Purchase image

"I told myself that these runs were my fault — the runs that they scored — so I needed to make-up for it and I needed to come up big for the team and that was my mindset going up to the plate," he said. "I was a little aggressive at first, but I got a little break in between and I got to recoup."

Jarneski got Roy Clemons-Diaz to strike out on three pitches for the second out, but his first pitch to Kekahi Reiny Aloy — the Sabers' ninth batter — fell into left field for an RBI-single. Ramos scored on the play to give Campbell its first lead of the game.

"Give credit to Campbell because they hit the ball when it really mattered," Hilo coach Tony DeSa said. "In the last inning they came back with three clutch hits. They're a tough team."

Four of the Sabers' six total hits came in the sixth inning.

DeSa opted to bring his infield in with one out in the Campbell sixth despite holding a two-run lead at that point.

"Just trying to knock down a run. You know, if you give them one run then the next run might be that much easier, so we're just trying to keep that second run off the board," DeSa said.

Ramos, who is signed with the University of Oregon, was charged with four runs — all of them earned — on five hits. He walked five batters, struck out four and threw 98 pitches in 4 1/3 innings and also hit two batters.

"Coming into this game I felt great," Ramos said. "I felt like I could do the job and then coming out of the bullpen, once I stepped foot onto that mound and started pitching, I didn't know what was wrong and then I tried too hard to make adjustments, which caused me to be all over the place and then I started trying less and I just couldn't get my mind right on the mound."

Ramos threw 34 pitches in the second inning, when the Vikings batted around. They benefitted from two walks and one Campbell error in the frame. Micah Bello, Stone Miyao and Jarneski each drove in a two-out run.

"In that second inning, their big inning, (Ramos) got the first two guys out real quick and then he got into a little funk there," Pico said. "He walked the guy after 1-2 and I think he just pressed a little bit, tried to overadjust a little bit and then so he was having a hard time finding it, finding his release point and it took him a little while, actually a long while, and there were moments in the game that we thought, ‘should we?,' but he's our horse and we decided to stay with him and he was able to get out of some big jams for us."

None bigger than the bottom of the fourth.

The Vikings loaded the bases with no outs, but Ramos got out of the jam unscathed. He sandwiched strikeouts of Miyao and Nick Anthony — both coming on full counts — around a pop-up by Jarneski.

"Bases loaded, no outs — yeah, that was huge to keep us there," Pico said.

Sampson took over on the mound for Ramos with one out in the bottom of the fifth and was the winning pitcher.

Jarneski tossed six innings of five-hit ball. Two of the four runs he allowed were unearned. The senior right-hander threw 104 pitches. He walked three and struck out three and was charged with the loss.

"He did a great job. He pitched well," DeSa said of Jarneski. "I thought he kept the ball down. Campbell hit the ball when they had to. That's what they did toward the end of the game and good teams do that, I guess."

Courtesy runner Charles Monell scored the game's first run on a Hilo error — after catcher Todd Takahama reached on a four-pitch walk — in the top of the second.

Ramos's two-out RBI-single in the top of the fourth plated Sampson to pull the Sabers to within 3-2.

The Vikings stretched their lead to 4-2 with Puukani DeSa's RBI-single to score pinch runner Ryan Cabreira in the bottom of the fifth.

Hilo stranded 11 base runners — seven of them in scoring position — and was picked off twice, including the first out of the bottom of the sixth when Bello was caught in a rundown between first and second after reaching on a dropped third strike.

The Vikings also committed five errors in the loss.

"It's not an easy place to play," DeSa said of Murakami Stadiium. "It was a tough situation. I think not having a chance to practice here or anything was part of it. Tough situation. It's not easy to come on the field and play for the first time. Just getting used to the surroundings is always tough for us."

Hilo will play in a consolation bracket game at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Hans L'Orange Park in Waipahu.

Campbell will meet the winner of Thursday's late quarterfinal between top-seeded Saint Louis and Maui in Friday's semifinal round at Murakami Stadium. First pitch of that game is slated for 7 p.m.