Chevas had a regal performance Friday night.

Chevas Numata scored the go-ahead run in the sixth and insured his team's lead with a grand slam in the seventh and Pearl City held off Kailua, 13-10, in a semifinal of the Wally Yonamine Foundation Division I state baseball tournament at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Chargers will take on Moanalua in a rematch of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association championship, won by Na Menehune, 4-3, on April 23. Neither team has won a state title in the 52-year history of the tournament. The Chargers' last title appearance was 2007, when they were a victim of Punahou's fourth crown of seven in a row. Moanalua's highest finish was fourth two years ago.

Numata, who started the game at first base and was 3 for 4 with three runs and four RBI, pitched the final 2 2/3 innings of relief, surviving a scare by the always relentless Surfriders, who scored three in the bottom of the seventh.

The Chargers squandered a 7-0 after four innings when the Surfriders sent 10 batters to the plate in a seven-run fifth.

But Pearl City regained the lead in the sixth when Numata doubled with one out, went to third on a wild pitch by Ryan McMonigle and scored on Troy Barbosa-Scanlan's single down the left-field line.

Aware of the Surfriders' history of comebacks, the Chargers added insurance in the top of the seventh. Tyler Tokunaga drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 9-7. Numata dropped the anvil on Kailua with his booming grand slam to left-center to make it 13-7.

"It was a changeup up," Numata said. "I was just looking for a good pitch."

The Surfriders were caught in a tough spot with Numata at the plate. With the bases full, there was no pitching around him.

"We know he's a great player," Kailua coach Corey Ishigo said. "If the bases weren't loaded, we would've walked him."

It turned out the Chargers needed the excess of runs, as the Surfriders threatened with a three-run, inside-the-park home run by Elijah Davidann. It happened when right fielder Kory Nakamura crashed into the outfield wall converging on Davidann's drive down the right-field line. Nakamura went down needed time to get back on his feet. He remained in the game and caught Corey Louis-Soares' wind-drifting fly ball to end the game.

"It wasn't easy for all of us, but we still believed in ourselves," rnChargers' first-year coach Mitch Yamato said. "We put it together at thern right time."

Also aiding the Chargers at the plate were Tokunaga and Barbosa-Scanlan. Each drove in three runs. Tokunaga's younger brother Tanner scored three runs, as did Numata.
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Kila Zuttermeister was the only Surfrider with multiple hits, batting 2 for 4. Davidann drove in three with his homer and Alika Ramseyer-Ho had two RBI.

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