Mid-Pacific's Cal Muramaru connects with a pitch for a base hit against Saint Louis. Brien Ing | SL

Purchase image 1 of 6

Mid-Pacific's Noah Shackles and Saint Louis' Jacob Gribbin collide at home plate. Shackles' held on to the ball to record the final out in the contest. Brien Ing | SL

Purchase image 2 of 6

Mid-Pacific pitcher Noah Sills throws a pitch to the plate against Saint Louis. Brien Ing | SL

Purchase image 3 of 6

Mid-Pacific's Noah Shackles tags out Saint Louis' Jacob Gribbin at home plate to end the game. Brien Ing | SL

Purchase image 4 of 6

Saint Louis' Rayson Romero scoops us a grounder against Mid-Pacific. Brien Ing | SL

Purchase image 5 of 6

Mid-Pacific's Cal Muramaru crosses home plate to score a run against Saint Louis as teammate Noah Shackles celebrates. Brien Ing | SL

Purchase image 6 of 6

HAWAII KAI — Tuesday marked the fourth game between Mid-Pacific and Saint Louis this season, but also provided Owls' sophomore Jacob Maekawa to introduce himself to the Crusaders.

Maekawa threw 3 1/3 shutout innings of relief to help third-ranked Mid-Pacific to a 6-2 win over No. 2 Saint Louis before an afternoon crowd at Mike Goeas Field. The seldom-used right-hander led the Owls (13-3-1) past the Crusaders and into Thursday's Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I Postseason Tournament final. They will play the winner of Wednesday's elimination-game between Saint Louis and Iolani, which defeated Kamehameha 7-3 Tuesday.

The Crusaders (13-4) are already assured of a spot in next month's state tournament as the regular-season champion. If they do not win the the postseason tournament, they will play the tourney champ in a one-game playoff Saturday for the overall ILH title and a first-round bye at states. If Saint Louis beat Iolani, Mid-Pacific will clinch the league's only other state-tournament berth.

"Tomorrow is the big game. If we lost (Tuesday), we would have to win (Wednesday) to get into the state tournament and that's the main thing right now," Owls' coach Dunn Muramaru said. "Hopefully Saint Louis wins tomorrow and we're in, then we can just play without having to worry about getting in and all that stuff. That's really what I wanted, was to get into the state tournament."

The win also served as some payback for a one-run loss at the hands of the Crusaders two weeks ago.

"It was extremely big," Maekawa said. "After we lost to them last time, we wanted to come back and bounce back, so it was a good win."

Last time they played, Saint Louis roughed up Mid-Pacific pitching for 12 hits. This time around, Sills and Maekawa scattered seven hits and stranded eight Owls' runners on base.

"Noah did fine, but he lost command a little bit and he started laying them in there and then he walked the eighth hitter," Muramaru said. "We kind of got hurt, but Jacob shut them down from there."

Sills, who lasted 3 2/3 before giving way to Maekawa, was the winning pitcher. He allowed both runs on five hits, walked three and struck out two.

Mid-Pacific scored a pair of first-inning runs off Saint Louis starting pitcher Pono Anderson to take an early lead it did not relinquish. Leadoff hitter Bryce Nagata was hit by Anderson's second pitch of the game and Cal Muramaru singled the first pitch he saw. Nicholas Bottom moved them over with a sacrifice bunt and Noah Shackles brought home Nagata with a sacrifice fly to centerfield. A wild pitch to the next batter, Cameron Igarashi, allowed Muramaru to score.

Both Muramarus — father, Dunn and son, Cal — said the Owls couldn't afford to relax at the plate.

"I knew we had to score more runs," Dunn Muramaru said.

Cal concurred: "Saint Louis is a really good hitting team. They hit the ball to the opposite field, they can pull it, so we knew that we had to score way more runs than just two."

Rayson Romero got the Crusaders going in the bottom half of the first inning. He worked the count full before lining a single up the middle. Romero went to second when Jacob Gribbin drew a one-out, four-pitch walk and scored on a hard single down the left field line.

In the Mid-Pacific fourth, Tyler Yamaguchi walked and Ryan Kiyotoki singled to set-up a Jarrett Lum double to deep right field that scored Yamaguchi from second. Kiyotoki, who went from first to third on the play, was safe on a play at home when he beat a throw from first baseman Jordan Mopas on a groundball by Ryne Yamashiro to make it 4-1.

Saint Louis got a run back in the bottom of the fourth when Jacob White hit a two-out double and scored on a Tanner Atiburcio single two batters later before Maekawa came in and got the third out to leave runners on second and third.  

One inning later the Crusaders got two runners aboard thanks to an Owls' error and a hit batter, but Maekawa got the final two outs in his next three pitches to get out of the jam.

"He's a strikeout kind of guy. He comes in, strikes out couple guys and gets us a little boosted," Cal Muramaru said. "He came in and threw an excellent game. He had a wipeout slider, tailing fastball — guys couldn't hit him — so that was really good for us."

It was just the third pitching appearance of the season for Maekawa, who injured a finger in a preseason scrimmage. He has yet to allow a run in 6 2/3 innings pitched.

"I was pretty nervous, because Saint Louis is a good hitting team, but I was pretty confident in my defense to make the plays, so I just went in there and tried to throw strikes as much as possible," Maekawa said.

Mid-Pacific added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh when Bottom doubled in Muramaru and later scored.