Pearl CIty's Christian Onomura connects for a triple against Aiea. Onomura was 2 for 4 with two runs and three RBIs in a win over Na Alii. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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PEARL CITY — Carson Okada threw six innings of five-hit ball and Christian Onomura drove in three runs to lead Pearl City to a 9-5 win over Aiea Friday afternoon.

The Chargers, who are No. 1 in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Baseball Power Rankings, overcame an early two-run deficit to improve to 9-0 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I West.

Okada, a junior right-hander, allowed a two-run home run to Na Alii shortstop Kobe Kato in the bottom of the first inning, but held them scoreless the rest of his outing. He exited the game after the sixth inning and gave way to Kulia Neal, who allowed three unearned runs in his one inning of work.

"We made a little bit of a mechanical adjustment in between innings and that helped him find the plate and get a little more confidence going the rest of the game," Pearl City coach Gavin Concepcion said of Okada. "As you throw strikes, you get outs and you start building that confidence up. When you start with a ball here, a strike here and guys get on base the confidence starts to go down, so he was able to build it back up."

It was Okada's most effective start of the season. He struck out two and walked none to improve to 2-0 on the year with a 1.36 ERA.

"He did an outstanding job. He kept us off-balance, for the most part," Aiea coach Ryan Kato said of Okada. "The thing that was impressive about him is he was able to buckle down. When we were able to get a leadoff hit or we'd get the guy in scoring position, he would buckle down and get the guys out. That's a good trait to have as a pitcher, so he did a great job."

Okada said he was told he would be starting at Thursday's practice.

"He said the team was ready for this win and I just wanted to help the team and do my part," said the 5-foot-10 Okada.

Concepcion said part of his rationale behind handing the ball to Okada was to build depth behind Prentice and staff ace Trenton Darley.

"We're trying to get guys enough work to where when we start getting to postseason play, they're up to par," said Concepcion, who also mentioned senior lefty Trestan Nakamura started against Aiea earlier this season.

"(Aiea) saw him pretty well and Carson threw pretty well the first game against them so we went with Carson and had Sam there if we needed on the back end," Concepcion said. "In postseason play we want to be able to have guys show up and compete and get some innings in. We want to know what we have as far as a depth chart."

Onomura batted 2 for 4 and came around to score both times he got on base. The junior first baseman, who was dealing with a minor knee injury he suffered in Wednesday's win over Campbell, flied out in his first at bat and struck out on four pitches in his second. He redeemed himself by belting a two-run triple in the fifth inning and followed that up with an RBI-single in the seventh.

"After that second at bat we kind of got on him a little bit to kind of keep him in the game and then he comes up in a big situation, puts a great swing on it, drives the ball to almost straight-away center and gets a big hit, so he showed some resiliency by not letting something that happened previously in the game dictate what's going to happen in the rest of the game for him," Concepcion said.

Onomura said he took some time in the dugout to clear his mind in between plate appearances.

"I was telling myself that the next at bat I was going to go up to the plate with a good plan and stay confident up there and I actually told myself that this time wasn't going to be an easy at bat and that I was just going to work for it," said Onomura, who brought both Davin Kapuras and Matt Yokota in to score on his triple. "He threw me three balls and then I got that one foul ball and then I saw the pitch that I wanted — fastball, mid-to-outer half of the plate —and I went to go get it."

The very next batter, Darley, sent a sacrifice fly to left field to score Onomura that made it a 6-2 lead for the Chargers, who sent seven batters to the plate and were aided by one walk and an Aiea error in the frame.

Aiea committed four costly errors in the game — which led to seven unearned runs for Pearl City.

"Like I told them, when you play a quality team, if you give them outs they're going to make you pay and that's exactly what they did," said Kato, whose team does not have a home field this season and consequently is playing all of its games on the road. "I tell them it's not for a lack of effort, but it's more the fact that we need to be more mentality tough because of the situation we have. It's not every day we get to field balls, (but) we can't use that as an excuse. We've just got to get out there and make the play."

Conversely, the Chargers played steady — and at times, spectacular — defense behind Okada. The final two outs of the bottom of the fourth inning came on a diving catch by Darley in left field that saved an extra-base hit and a tremendous play deep in the hole by shortstop Matt Aribal, whose throw to first just beat out Chase Ling. Matt Yokota closed out the game in the bottom of the seventh with a diving grab in centerfield.

"Our big focus is we don't want to give extra outs, we don't want to give extra bags — I don't care what team you're playing, you do that to any team and you put yourself in a tough situation," Concepcion said. "We bang on them all the time about just taking care of the ball, getting an out here, staying within ourselves so if our pitchers are doing what we're asking them to do — which is challenging the zone and going after hitters and forcing contact — then we expect our defense to compete the same way and play behind them and get those outs, so we expect it both ways."

Pearl City got on the board with an RBI-single by Prentice and tied it on Davin Kapuras' RBI sacrifice fly in the third inning.

Each team added three runs in the seventh inning.

In all, eight of the Chargers' nine starters recorded at least one base hit. Yokota batted 2 for 3 with a double, walk and two runs scored.

Jarred Uyeda and Kobe Kato paced Aiea in the loss. Uyeda had a pair of doubles with two RBI and Kato was 2 for 4 and scored twice. Uyeda was also the losing pitcher after allowing three runs in four innings. Kato allowed six runs on seven hits in his three innings of work.

Na Alii dropped their fourth consecutive game to fall to 3-5.