The victory at Ala Wai Field completed a rare three-game sweep of the Owls and improved the Crusaders to 12-0 in the ILH, good for a three-game lead over second-place MPI (9-3).

"We talked about being knocked down, that it's not how you get knocked down but how you stand back up," Saint Louis coach George Gusman said. "We stood back up tonight, and that's really big for us."

The Crusaders appeared to be cruising along with a 4-0 lead with two outs in the top of the sixth until the Owls suddenly loaded the bases after a hit batter and two errors. Mid-Pacific starting pitcher Travis Garcia-Perreira then stepped in as a pinch-hitter against hard-throwing reliever Tre Haliburton-Goeas, who had just moved over from shortstop in relief of starter Rico Garcia.

Haliburton-Goeas, whose fastball was clocked at 88 mph last night, worked a 2-2 count to Garcia-Perreira and then Garcia-Perreira launched a fastball high over the right field fence for a game-tying grand slam.

Gusman said he made the pitching change because Garcia had just taken a line drive in the right thigh for the second out.

"You know they'll want to stay in and will never admit to being hurt, but obviously he lost something there," Gusman said.

Saint Louis answered quickly in the bottom of the sixth, as pinch-hitter Dallas Tu'umalo led off with a walk and advanced to second on Iolana Akau's bunt single. Derek Nakasato's sacrifice bunt moved the runners, and then No. 3 batter Kaeo Aliviado was intentionally walked to load the bases.

"It's easier on our fielders if there's a ground ball (with the bases loaded), and (Aliviado) had been hitting us hard all day," Owls coach Dunn Muramaru said. "(Shaw) had bunted a couple of times before that. But it (the intentional walk) didn't work."

The Crusaders had built their 4-0 lead steadily, scoring in each of the first four innings. Nakasato led off the bottom of the first with a single to left, advanced to second on Haliburton-Goeas' sacrifice bunt and scored on a two-out, infield error.

Saint Louis manufactured another run in the second, when Akau reached on a two-out error and scored on Nakasato's triple to left, then made it 3-0 in the third on Kalei Contrades' solo home run over the left field fence.

Meanwhile, Garcia was keeping close watch on MPI's offense. Until the injury, he had allowed only three hits through the first five innings.

Nakasato went 3 for 3, Aliviado was 2 for 2 and Contrades also represented himself well by going 2 for 4.