The 38th Hawaii High School Athletic Association/Nissan Baseball Tournament gets under way tomorrow with eight of the tournament's 12 teams in action.
The Warriors (18-3), with 1995 Interscholastic League of Honolulu player of the year Dane Sardinha behind the plate, open play on Thursday at 2 p.m. against the winner of tomorrow morning's Waiakea (11-2) vs. Kaiser (10-2) game (11:30 a.m.).
Second-seeded Castle, which went 12-0 in winning the Oahu Interscholastic Association title last weekend at the stadium, is led by returning first-team Eastern Division all-stars Ian Perio (first base), Ricky Caraballo (shortstop) and Shane Kauhane (outfield).
Head coach Joe Tom Jr. seeks his second state title in three seasons.
Third-seeded is Maui Interscholastic League Champion Maui High (12-1). The Sabers are after their first state title since 1982.
Defending state champion Baldwin (10-3) is unseeded and will take on unseeded OIA runner-up Aiea (11-2) tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. The Bears have won four HHSAA championships.
Kauai High (12-3), which has never captured a state title, is the fourth seed. Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Hilo (12-1) enters unseeded and opens tomorrow at 2 p.m. against unseeded Mililani (10-4).
The team Baldwin beat for the state title last year, Mid-Pacific, did not qualify for the tournament.
While Kamehameha head coach Vern Ramie acknowledges that he has a lot of power in his lineup, he said playing at Aloha Stadium changes the complexion of things.
"A lot of balls we hit for home runs will be outs there," he said. "I'm stressing more line drives. We must try for the gaps. Because the outfield is spacious, there's a better chance for extra-base hits. Outfielders have a lot of ground to cover out there, especially in center field, which is 410 or 420 feet deep."
Kahai Shishido, Baldwin's head coach, said any team that faces Kamehameha must try to score seven or eight runs to have a chance.
"We need to be ready for anything because our opponents will be playing for the big innings," said Ramie. "But this is as good a defensive team as we've had in a while."
Kamehameha is strongest up the middle with Sardinha, second baseman Shane Chan, shortstop Shane Lyons and center fielder Dylan Ching.
Castle has two left-handed pitchers in its rotation: Perio (7-0) and Keith Taira (2-0). Right-hander Shane Kauhane is 3-0.
The 6-0, 165-pound Perio is one of the tournament's more dominant players, a strikeout pitcher with a hard curve. He struck out 19 in a preseason game against Moanalua.
Perio, Kauhane, second baseman Troy Taniguchi, shortstop Ricky Caraballo and third baseman Ross Murakami all wield strong bats for the Knights.
Castle batted .381 as a team during the OIA season.
Asked if this is a better team than his 1994 state championship team, Tom said, "In a sense, yes. We had a good offense but nothing close to the stats and production we have this year."
Third-seeded Maui is described by Shishido as scrappy.
"They play good defense and they have good team speed," he said.
As for the Bears, they lost all but two of their key players to graduation.
Back are senior pitcher/center fielder Jamie Aloy and senior catcher Noah Kekahuna.