It turns out four-time defending state champion Punahou is the baseball team to beat in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu after all.

The Buffanblu took advantage of seven Saint Louis errors yesterday to defeat the Crusaders, 12-7, and win the ILH double-elimination tournament before a crowd of about 500 at Ala Wai Field.

The teams will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Ala Wai in a winner-take-all playoff for the league's overall championship. Saint Louis earned the playoff by winning the regular season. Both teams have already secured state tournament berths, as has regular season runner-up Mid-Pacific.

Punahou, ranked No. 3 in The Advertiser's statewide Top 10 poll of coaches and media, improved to 12-5-1 in ILH play after going 4-0 in the tournament. The Crusaders, ranked No. 2, fell to 17-3.

The Buffanblu finished third in the regular season and only secured their state tournament berth on Tuesday, when Saint Louis eliminated Kamehameha from the tournament. But Punahou appears to have ironed out most of its regular season wrinkles and is now one victory away from its third ILH title in four years.

"We're where we want to be right now," said senior starting pitcher Reece Kiriu, who notched the victory yesterday after giving up four earned runs in six innings. "We just have to keep the momentum going."

The Buffanblu got some help from the Crusaders, especially during a six-run fourth inning.

Saint Louis had taken a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, after Moses Samia's one-out single to left field brought home Tamatoa DeMello and Danny Higa. Punahou closed to 2-1 in the second, after pinch-runner Shane Yoshiyama scored on an error.

The floodgates then opened in the fourth, when the Buffanblu sent nine batters to the plate and scored six runs on three hits and two errors. Matt Suiter and Josh Bninski had RBI singles and Geoff Kunita brought home a run on a fielder's choice grounder. Punahou also scored on two infield errors and a wild pitch.

"We mixed things up with other plays (like a delayed double steal), and we did a good job putting the ball in play," Buffanblu coach Eric Kadooka said. "We were putting pressure on them."

The Crusaders got three runs back in the bottom of the fourth to make it 7-5, also with help from Punahou. Marcus Kimura reached on a one-out error, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Kaden Kamoe's ground single to center. Kimura went to second on Lucas Gonsalves' line single to left, stole third and scored on an errant throw. Gonsalves then scored on an infield error.

But the Buffanblu opened the lead to 9-5 in the fifth after scoring on another error and completing the double steal, then made it 11-5 in the sixth on Tyler Young's two-run triple to center.

PUNAHOU (12-5-1) 010 622 1 — 12 9 4

SAINT LOUIS (17-3) 200 302 0 — 7 9 7

Reece Kiriu, Paul Snieder (7) and Zach Kometani. Chris Chung, Zach Markwith (5), Jordan Akau (7) and Moses Samia. W — Kiriu. L — Chung.

Leading hitters — Punahou: Matt Suiter 2-4, double; Jeeter Ishida 2-2; Tyler Young triple, 2 RBIs; Shane Yoshiyama 2 runs; Tyler Hanzawa 2 runs. Saint Louis: Danny Higa 2-4, 2 RBIs; Samia 2 RBIs; Keoni Haina 2-4; Kaden Kamoe 2-3, 2 runs.

Read Wes' blog on prep sports at http://preptalk.honadv.blogs.com