Mid-Pacific and Punahou will play for the sixth time this season Tuesday afternoon at Damon Field. Steve Erler | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

A storied program clad in green took a key 3-2 series lead over the weekend.

For the NBA fans out there, I'm not talking about the Boston Celtics. They only tied their first round playoff series with the Atlanta Hawks at two games apiece.

Let's get the guessing game out of the way. Mid-Pacific defeated Punahou last Saturday, 5-4 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I double-elimination tournament, the fifth meeting between the two teams this year.

Before I go on, I think it's necessary to understand what happened in both teams' previous games with each other. Every team in the ILH D1 plays each other three times during the regular season. Mid-Pacific won the first and third games while Punahou took the second. The Owls also finished as the league's regular season champion, which we'll delve more into later.

The fourth meeting between the two teams was last Tuesday in the double-elimination tourney. Punahou won that contest, 7-2 to remain as the only team in the tournament without a loss at the time.

Mid-Pacific meanwhile needed to rally past Iolani last Friday to get another shot at Punahou. The Owls ended the Raiders season and used a five-run fifth inning to hand the Buffanblu their first lost in the postseason, which forces a rematch this Tuesday.

Because the Owls are the regular season champions, a consecutive win against Punahou would give them the ILH title outright because they would be also be the postseason champ.

On the other hand, the Buffanblu will need to win on Tuesday to force a championship game for all the marbles on Thursday.

However If the Punahou loses a second straight game to the Owls, it will still play another game later this week.

Say what?

Saint Louis, the regular season runner-up, has been waiting patiently to see if they have a shot at states. If Mid-Pacific wins the postseason title, the Crusaders will have the opportunity to play Punahou Thursday for the league's second and final berth into the state tourney, putting all the pressure on the Buffanblu this week.

"Now the onus is on (Punahou) now," said Mid-Pacific coach Dunn Muramaru. "We're in (states) already.  They have to beat us twice to win the ILH. That's their mindset now. Before we had to beat them twice, and Saint Louis is just looking on the side hoping we win on Tuesday."

For four innings on Saturday, both teams were scoreless. Punahou got back-to-back hits on Mid-Pacific starter Alexander Oley to begin the top of the first, but cooled off and could not drive any runs until the final stanza.

"We didn't execute a bunt," said Punahou coach Keenan Sue. "Anytime you don't execute, the momentum starts going the other way. This is such a high-pressured league that if you don't execute when you need to, momentum can swing in a heart beat."

Indeed it did.

The Owls left one on base in the second inning, then left two on with no hits in the third and then left two on three hits in the bottom of the fourth. Two great putouts at home by Buffanblu catcher Logan Williams kept Mid-Pacific off the board early on.

Punahou finally ran into trouble in the fifth when Mid-Pacific loaded the bases with no outs. The Buffanblu battled though and was able to get a force out at home and a fly out to right field on Mid-Pacific's next two at bats.

Buffanblu starter Noah Goss just needed one more out to get out of the inning, but nemesis Cameron Wong was up to bat. Wong, a left fielder, racked up hits at his previous two at bats before the bottom of the fifth.

Those that kept tabs on the game will know that it all began to unravel for Punahou after that. Wong drilled a full count single deep into the 5-6 hole for the first run of the game. A throwing error on the same play also scored the Owls' second run.

Reliever Riley Guieb came in for Goss on the next at bat, but his pickoff attempt at second was not fielded properly and another Mid-Pacific run came in to score. By the time the inning was over, the Owls had taken a 5-0 lead.

"For our team we usually score in streaks so I guess we caught a streak right there and then everything went according to plan so that really helped us," said Wong.

Oley was nearly on his way to pitching a complete-game shutout, but was pulled with one out left to go as a precaution. The change nearly proved to be a disaster as replacement Chase Wago walked two straight batters for Punahou's first run and gave up a base-clearing triple by Williams to make it one run game.

Mid-Pacific went back to Oley, who filled in at centerfield with Wago on the mound, and the Owls were able to close out the win.

"I didn't want to extend (Oley), you know, but I extended him anyways," Muramaru said. 

While the Owls can relax knowing the Buffanblu will have to beat them twice to win the league crown, Sue is hoping that the team's late-game offense shifted momentum back to his team's side.

"That's great, we fought back," he said. "Now we play them again on Tuesday. We have a little momentum, we just need to tighten up a coulee of things on Monday and come out and play ball."