Damien Monarchs make return to the top of Division II baseball

HONOLULU – Call it a Damien dynasty.

The Monarchs captured their third Division II baseball state title in four years after holding off Kapa’a in the championship game Saturday afternoon at Les Murakami Stadium.

It was a return to glory for Damien, who fell in last year’s final to Kamehameha-Hawaii in mercy-rule fashion, 12-1.

“It was hard to experience that kind of feeling, but to win it now I think we had to go through that,” said senior Aaron Rapoza, who pitched the final inning to earn the save and most outstanding player honors for the tournament.

“It’s just a blessing to be out there. We had concerns at the beginning of the year of who was going to play what, but we all just grinded and we just played hard. We just found the groove, we always found a way to win.”

Three different pitchers combined to shutout the Warriors for the final six innings as all of the game’s scoring took place in the opening frame.

Senior Cade Lurito got things started for the Monarchs (12-5) in the win, freshman Tanaloa Seguancia then went three innings with four strikeouts before Rapoza came over from shortstop and tossed two strikeouts in the final frame.

The strong pitching and defense by Damien after the strong start helped the Monarchs hold on for the victory despite only netting two hits.

“This team worked hard all year,” said Damien coach Skyler Tengan, who coached the Monarchs to three of their four state titles. “It wasn’t pretty today, we had two hits all game, credit to the hard work that we do.”

Oddly enough, the Monarchs’ two hits didn’t factor into their three runs that they scored to start the game.

Rapozo drew a base on balls to leadoff the game and then two beaned batters loaded the bases. Ultimately a throwing error, a balk and a wild pitch would result in three runs for the Monarchs, their only scores of the game.

“Thank God we got those three runs in the first inning,” said Tengan. “Without it, it probably would have been a different game. We just take what they gave us.”

A leadoff double by Kaitin Mundon in the bottom of the first and a fielding error helped the Warriors (13-3) trim the lead, but Damien shutdown Kapa’a the rest of the way to earn the win.

The five seniors on the Damien Monarchs baseball team holds up the Koa Head trophy.

Damien senior Aaron Rapoza celebrates after the final out was made in the Division II state championship game.