A crowd of about 400 at MPI's Damon Field watched the Owls improve to 13-3 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, a game-and-a-half behind first-place Saint Louis (14-1) with two to play -- both against Punahou.

MPI also secured the ILH's second and final state tournament berth, while the Buffanblu (10-6) are mathematically eliminated after winning seven straight state titles.

"It's a big relief," said Owls coach Dunn Muramaru. "We had a great practice yesterday, and we concentrated on what we had to do. We've had so many distractions this year ... we just had to concentrate."

Mid-Pacific wasted no time in getting stated yesterday, as Justin Protacio led off the bottom of the first inning with a single to right field followed by Nik Alarcio's single to left, setting the stage for Doi's monster blast over the center field fence.

"It was a straight fastball," said Doi, a sophomore right-fielder. "I had to stay aggressive ... I was looking for the fastball, and I got it."

The Owls added another run after one out when Garcia-Perreira reached on an infield error, courtesy runner Ryne Saiki stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Daniel Fentriss' single to left.

They made it 6-0 in the second on Doi's two-run homer to center, about 50 feet to the right of where he cleared the fence the first time, then went up, 7-0, in the third after Cy Higashi led off with a double to right-center, advanced to third on Fentriss' single and scored on Blayne Chang's groundout to second.

"I think it helped our pitcher be more comfortable, it gave him a cushion," Doi said of the big early lead.

Garcia-Perreira, a junior left-hander, struck out only one but he retired the leadoff batter in five of the seven innings and allowed only three runners past first base. He got help from an errorless defense that tracked down and stabbed several hard-hit balls.

"We played hard," Punahou coach Eric Kadooka said. "We won't cry about it. We'll be back."

Protacio, Higashi and Fentriss each went 2 for 3 and Doi, Alarcio and Dane Fujinaka each finished 2 for 4.