Kamehameha's Brandon Henderson circles the bases after hitting a two-run home run in a win over Mid-Pacific. Steve Erler | Special to SL

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MANOA — A pair of long balls proved to be the difference for Kamehameha in a 7-3 win over Mid-Pacific Tuesday afternoon.

Brandon Henderson and Kekai Rios each belted a two-run home run to help the Warriors (7-5) upend the host Owls (9-3) before a crowd of about 150 fans in the final regular season game for both teams at Damon Field Tuesday afternoon.

With the win — its second straight since a four-game losing streak — Kamehameha moved into a tie with idle Saint Louis for second place in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I standings.

The Warriors, who are ranked seventh in this week's ScoringLive/OC16 Baseball Power Rankings, will meet the fourth-ranked Crusaders in a 4:30 p.m. playoff game at Goeas Field Wednesday for the second seed in the upcoming ILH postseason tournament.

"We wanted this one real bad," said Rios, a senior catcher and University of Hawaii-commit. "We just focused. The past few weeks we practiced focusing and we had a little losing streak where we weren't as focused, so we just tried to get back to focusing and doing what we know we can do."

The winner of Wednesday's Kamehameha-Saint Louis playoff game essentially earns the right to be the home team when the teams meet again Saturday in the first-round of the postseason tournament, but the Warriors are happy to have some momentum going forward nonetheless.

"Every game has some incentive, because it always boosts your confidence to just go out and play baseball and have fun, so it always helps to win," said Henderson, a senior first baseman/pitcher.

Kamehameha coach Tom Perkins said it was nice to see his team take some strides in preparation for a postseason run.

"We've been struggling a little and we needed to make these things work, so this is just kind of falling into place right now," Perkins said. "The kids have working hard the past week preparing for this week and this game, so we've done a lot of different things trying to refocus — not only physically, but mentally — to try and get our game to get back together."

Leadoff hitter Matt Yokota got on base in three of his four plate appearances and made Mid-Pacific pay by scoring all three times. He singled to lead off the game and scored the game's first run on a two-out RBI single by Codie Paiva in the top of the first inning.

Yokota batted in front of Kahoea Akau for the second consecutive game. Akau was in the leadoff position most of the season until this week.

"That's one of the changes we made," Perkins said. "We made a few changes and it's a big plus for us having someone out there that's going to swing the bat and make things happen."

Mid-Pacific tied it in the bottom of the second when Ryne Yamashiro came home on a wild pitch by Warriors' starter Hunter Breault, who lasted three innings before a trio of relievers finished out the game.

Kamehameha reclaimed the lead for good in the top of the fourth when Henderson homered to centerfield on the first pitch he saw from Owls' starter Grant Doi. Paiva, who was hit by a pitch to get on base, scored on the play to make it a 3-1 lead for the Warriors.

"That at-bat, I knew that he was going to attack the zone, so I was just ready for that pitch and it was right there," Henderson said. "It was a fastball away."

Yamashiro scored in the bottom of the inning to make it 3-2 momentarily, but Rios stretched his team's lead to 5-2 with a two-run homer that scored Yokota in the top of the fifth.

"I was just expecting a fastball because it was a 3-2 count," Rios said. "I was just looking for something in my zone and I just drove that and relaxed my hands."

Both Kamehameha home runs came with two outs.

"It's amazing, but that's one of the things we worked on this whole week, too," Perkins said. "We were talking and saying to look for base hits and the big hits are going to come and I think we did a good job looking for base hits today and when we needed it, it came."

Noah Shackles hit a solo home run to lead off the Mid-Pacific half of the fifth inning, but Kamehameha got a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh.

The Owls, who ascended to No. 1 in this week's Power Rankings, had already clinched a berth in the 12-team Division I state tournament as the ILH regular-season champion.