Four-time defending state champion Punahou wanted no part of another weeknight drama yesterday, blanking Maui High, 9-0, in the Wally Yonamine Foundation Baseball Championship semifinals.

Jeremy Fujimoto pitched a three-hitter with nine strikeouts and no walks for the No. 1 seed and Interscholastic League of Honolulu champ Buffanblu, who improved to 15-5-1 in the regular and postseason.

Punahou will face unseeded Saint Louis, which beat No. 2 Pearl City, 2-1, in last night's second semifinal, in tonight's title game at Les Murakami Stadium.

The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be televised live statewide on OC16.

Punahou survived a big scare in the quarterfinals Thursday night, when it committed five errors and then had to rally for two runs with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat Roosevelt, 9-8. But the Buffanblu returned to championship form last night, playing errorless defense and scoring in each of its six innings at bat.

"We were just trying to put (Thursday's) game behind us," sad Fujimoto, a 5-foot-9 junior right-hander. "We wanted to relax, have fun and play how we can play."

Unlike Thursday, when Punahou fell behind 5-0, this time the Buffanblu jumped to an early lead. They went up 2-0 in the bottom of the first, after a bases-loaded groundout by Zach Kometani brought home Matt Suiter and Jeeter Ishida's bunt single scored Josh Bninski.

Punahou made it 4-0 in the second when Bninski drove in Tyler Hanzawa with a single and Geoff Kunita scored on a delayed steal. The Buffanblu added a run in the third when pinch runner Jeremy Ioane scored on Reece Kiriu's squeeze bunt.

"We knew they weren't going to play the same way they did against Roosevelt, we knew they would awaken," Sabers coach Lee Yonamine said. "They can hit the ball, their defense made the plays and their pitcher was spotting the ball great. He had good command and kept us off-balanced."

Fujimoto was so efficient, he faced only two batters over the minimum and did not allow a runner into scoring position until the seventh inning, when Justin Fontanilla ripped a two-out triple into the right field corner. Fujimoto retired 12 batters in a row in one stretch from the first inning to the fifth, and he ran a three-ball count only twice.

"At the beginning I didn't have my off-speed stuff working, but I was able to get my fastball over," said Fujimoto, who needed only 84 pitches. "Usually when I get into trouble, it's because of walks or running high counts, an inability to throw strikes. But as the game progressed, I was able to throw my curve for strikes, and that helped a lot.

"And it fees so good as a pitcher to have a defense make so many excellent plays."

Punahou capitalized on Maui mistakes to score single runs in the fourth and fifth innings. The Sabers balked in a run in the fourth, and another balk in the fifth set up Kiriu's RBI single to make it 7-0. The Buffanblu added two more runs in the sixth on Alaka'i Aglipay's bases-loaded grounder and Ishida's RBI single to right.

MAUI (14-4) 000 000 0—0 3 4

PUNAHOU (15-5-1) 221 112 X—9 10 0

Peter Ibanez, Alika Aheong (3) and Jordan Inamasu. Jeremy Fujimoto and Zackary Kometani. W — Fujimoto (1-0). L — Ibanez (0-1).

Leading hitters — Maui: Justin Fontanilla triple. Punahou: Matthew Suiter 2-3, 2 runs; Cameron Lee 1-1, run; Joshua Bninski 2-4, RBI, 2 runs; Jeeter Ishida 2-3, 2 RBIs; Reece Kiriu 2-2, 2 RBIs.

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