Pearl City's Matt Aribal tips his hat to Cade Halemanu at home plate after a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning. Michael Lasquero | SL

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_17031653_MICH-0582.jpg - Michael Lasquero | SL

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PEARL CITY — Cade Halemanu made sure his first hit of the season was worth the wait.

The Pearl City junior drilled a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning to break a 3-all game to help the Chargers beat visiting Aiea, 9-4, for its second straight win of the season Wednesday afternoon.

The Chargers recorded a season-high 11 hits in the contest to improve to 3-3 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Western Conference standings.

Wednesday's win served as a turning point for the Chargers' season. Pearl City dealt with a couple of injuries and academic problems early in the year and suffered three straight losses, but now have momentum as they head into the second round of conference play.

"It feels very good," said Halemanu. "It was a rough season at the start, but we're battling back and working hard. We just work hard right now because after losing, we don't like the taste of it."

The win over Aiea was also a turning point for Halemanu. The Pearl City junior was 0-for-5 in his first at bats of the season before booming one deep into center field in the bottom of the fifth inning to score himself and Matt Aribal to give the Chargers a 5-3 lead.

Halemanu wasn't done just yet however. In his next at bat in the sixth, he drilled another long bomb to center field with two runners on base. Halemanu was so excited that he got in front of the preceding runner after first base. The mistake changed his deep shot into a two RBI single — but it didn't matter — as Pearl City was comfortably ahead 9-4 at that point.

"He did a great job today," Pearl City assistant coach Jordan Oshiro said on Halemanu. "He didn't let the game get too big, he didn't let the game get too small. We preach even-keel and he found a pitch he can handle and good things happen."

Aiea (3-3) plated leadoff batter Ty Matsunami to start the first inning, but Pearl City came back in the bottom of the frame to take a 3-1 lead. Na Alii manufactured a run in the fourth and fifth inning to tie the game before the Chargers had a four-run fifth inning to take the lead for good. The visitors produced another run in the following inning, but Pearl City answered with Halemanu's deep shot.

"They can hit the ball and I tip my cap, that's a pretty good ball club," Aiea coach Ryan Kato said on the Chargers. "They came out swinging the bats and they did the job on defense and they came out on top.

"I got to give credit where credit is due, they put the guys on base and got the big hit. Our job was to try and stop it. Today, we just didn't do it."

Halemanu added that getting players on base early in the inning gave them fire to score multiple runs.

"When you get runners on base, it just fuels up the dugout, and when we get good energy, good things start happening and we just roll from there."

Jansen Shigeta earned the win for the Chargers after relieving starter Caleb Young after 4 and 1/3 innings. Young allowed just hits, two run, one walk and had one strikeout before giving way to Shigeta, who pitched the remainder of the fifth inning. Dillin Hasegawa took the mound in the final two innings to preserve the win.

Kato's son Kobe was charged with the loss after moving from shortstop to pitcher with no outs in the top of the fourth. Aiea starter Colby Narciso was tagged for five hits, three runs and had just one strikeout against four walks. 

The younger Kato became the pitcher of record after Na Alii tied it at 3-3, but gave up four runs in the bottom of the fifth. 

Matsunami led Aiea at the plate, batting 2-for-3 with a triple, RBI and run scored.