Mid-Pacific's Alex Oley allowed just one unearned run in six innings of work in a win against Iolani. He scattered four hits and walked just two, while striking out two. John Lujan | Special to SL

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WAIPIO – In typical Mid-Pacific Institute fashion, the Owls got strong pitching and clutch hitting to down Iolani, 4-1, Saturday at the Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park.

The Owls (13-3) advance to the winners' bracket of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I second round against Punahou, while the Raiders (5-12) will move to the elimination bracket against Saint Louis, which lost to the Buffanblu. Both games will be Tuesday; the MPI-Punahou game is 3:30 p.m. at CORP, while the Saint Louis-Iolani game is at Goeas.

Unlike his previous outing against the Raiders, MPI starting pitcher Alex Oley was on his game. The left-hander pitched six-plus innings of four-hit ball, walking two and striking out two. The only run he allowed was unearned. After Oley walked the lead-off hitter to start the top of the seventh, left-hander Chase Wago was summoned from the bullpen and promptly picked off the runner from first and retired the next two batters to notch his third save and preserve the win for Oley (4-0).

The Owls scored all of their runs on 4-for-5 hitting with runners on third base against Iolani starting pitcher Jordan Iwasaki (0-6), who pitched six innings.

In his last outing against Iolani, Oley gave up six runs (five earned) in five innings, although the Owls still won the slugfest 9-6, at Iolani.

‘They're just playing well," MPI coach Dunn Muramaru said. "Kind of like UH. You watch UH play, it's the same way."

Indeed.

The home-team Owls staked Oley to an early lead, jumping on Iwasaki for two runs in the first inning. Jacob Maekawa was hit by a pitch to start the inning then made it all the way to third on a wild pitch that catcher Keene Tanaka had a hard time finding and slow to get to the pitch that deflected to the backstop.

With the infield drawn in, Oley grounded a single up the middle to score Maekawa. It was a kind of grounder that had the infield played at normal depth would have been fielded for an out. "With Alex (Oley) pitching, we know we're not going to score a lot, so we had to minimize the runs that we allowed as well," Iolani coach Kurt Miyahira said.

Courtesy runner Jarrod Infante promptly stole second and took third when Wago grounded out to second. With the infield again drawn in, Ryne Yamashiro hit a sharp grounder just out of the reach of second baseman Landen Moran for an RBI single. Again, in normal depth, it's likely to be a ground out.

The Owls cushioned their lead in the second when Trevin Tengan led off with a single – the first of a 3-for-3 day – took second on Zachary Gushiken's sacrifice, went to third when Hunter Hill grounded out to shortstop and scored on Maekawa's line single to left.

The Raiders cut their deficit in the top of the fourth. Kaimana Bartolome reached on an error that first baseman Yamashiro could not hold on to on a throw from shortstop Maekawa. Bartolome was forced at second when Cade Yonamine bunted too hard back to Oley, who fired to second for the force out. Jordan Hara pinch ran for Yonamine, stole second and scored on Zach Kon's single to right before Oley struck out Tanaka to end the inning.

Showing signs of a team playing well, the Owls got that run back in the bottom of the frame. The hot-hitting Tengan – his hitting streak is at six games – led off with a triple and scored on Gushiken's single through the middle to make it 4-1.

"That's why they're the premiere baseball program in Hawaii," Miyahira said. "They execute. We get one run back, next half-inning, they go and get the run back. They put pressure on us."

Oley has been on a roll his last four starts. In 26 innings, he has allowed only three earned runs and has pitched at least six innings in those outings.

"This year, I'm pitching a little more," Oley said. "Last year, we had Grant Doi, Wago and Noah Sills. They were the main guys, so I just filled in. This year, I have to actually step up in the role of pitching so I try to handle it better."

Oley credited catcher Kyle Layugan for calling a good game. At MPI, Muramaru lets the catcher call the pitches, whereas the coach calls pitches for most other teams.

"I don't have to worry about too much," Oley said "He's kind of on the same page as me, the defense got my back. The people in the dugout have my back, too. Iolani's a really good hitting team. They usually hit against us all year. It's always high scores with them."

As the top seed, the Owls will be the designated home team throughout the second round. Although they technically could have hosted the game at MPI, the league scheduled it at a neutral site in CORP. But Muramaru does not mind at all. The teams three losses, ironically, came at the Kitamura Diamond.