WAIPI'O — Pearl City High School's baseball team squashed out any hopes of a Cinderella finish by Kaiser yesterday, knocking the youthful Cougars out of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association semifinals with 12-3 victory at Central O'ahu Regional Park.

The Chargers improved to 10-3 in the OIA and will face Kailua (11-1) in tonight's championship game at 6:30 at CORP. The game will be televised live statewide on OC-16.

Kaiser, seeded No. 4 in the Eastern Division and featuring eight new starters after last season, entered the game on a roll after a 1-0 first-round victory over Wai'anae on Wednesday and then a 4-3 upset of West champion 'Aiea on Thursday.

"Kaiser is a real dangerous team, and we knew that every game they lost was a close game," Pearl City coach Mel Seki said. "I noticed that they hang in there and make things happen. We told our guys that (the Cougars) beat a team that we couldn't beat ('Aiea), so we need to respect them."

Sure enough, Kaiser jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning after leadoff batter Cal Tashiro reached on an error and scored on another error.

But the Chargers responded with an explosive bottom half of the first, scoring four runs on five hits and sending nine batters to the plate.

Ryno Acosta and Kellen Ushijima each had RBI singles and Jordan Casarez later had a two-run double to make it 4-0.

Tanabe's RBI double in the third inning stretched the lead to 5-1, but the Cougars cut it to 5-3 in the fourth after a run-scoring groundout by Devin Dela Pena and Michael Kawashima's RBI single to center field.

Pearl City, however, loaded the bases on walks to start the bottom of the fourth and then Ushijima slammed a 3-1 fastball into the left-center alley for a three-run triple. Jeffrey Domingo followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 9-3.

Cory Yuh then shut out Kaiser with 3 1/3 innings of relief and the Chargers added three runs in the sixth for good measure.

Pearl City finished with 15 hits and also drew five walks.

"We're not going to win when we give up that many (hits and walks)," Cougars coach Peter Ho said. "We came out flat, and our pitching didn't hold. Our first two games (against Wai'anae and 'Aiea) were real intense games, but today we were just flat."

Ushijima finished 4 for 4 with a triple, three runs scored and four RBIs. Tanabe was 3 for 4 with a double, triple and three RBIs and Domingo was 3 for 3 with three runs scored and one RBI.

Pearl City, the West's No. 3 seed, will now try to win its first OIA championship since 1999.

"I like the feeling (of the team)," Seki said. "I didn't really expect us (to reach the final), because our goal was just to make the playoffs. We don't have that pitcher who will strike out 10 guys like the other teams have, but we've hit the ball well and our defense has been doing its job all season."

Kaiser (9-4) will now play Mililani for third place at 2 p.m. at CORP. Both teams have clinched berths for next week's state tournament.

"We're over-achieving right now, and we were just one game away from the big show," Ho said.

KAISER (9-4) 100 200 0 — 3 5 0

PEARL CITY (10-3) 401 403 X — 12 15 2

Zach Wong, Brent Takaki (3), Dustin Dela Pena (4), Mike Ramia (6) and Bryce Marcouiller; Scott Muraoka, Cory Yuh (4) and Carlton Tanabe. W — Yuh. L — Wong.

Leading hitters — Kaiser: Marcouiller 2-3. Pearl City: Kellen Ushijima 4-4, triple, 3 runs, 4 RBIs; Tanabe 3-4, double, triple, 3 RBIs; Jordan Casarez double, 2 RBIs; Jeffrey Domingo 3-3, 3 runs, RBI.

CORRECTION

Jeffrey Domingo had a double and two RBIs in Pearl City's 6-1 victory over Roosevelt on Thursday. Another player was listed in a story in yesterday's Advertiser.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.