In what could very well be a matchup to be revisited come early-May, Mid-Pacific would battle their way to a 6-4 victory over rival Punahou to secure sole possession of first place in the extremely competitive ILH Division I.

Travis Garcia-Perreira fought his way to a complete-game victory, allowing four earned runs on eight hits, striking out 6 and walking three.

"He (Garcia-Perreira) was not very pretty today, but he fought through... very tough minded. He would give up some plays, but come back strong after making bad pitches" said head coach Dunn Muramaru.

The Owls seemed to take on that same persona offensively, scrapping their way to an early 2-0 lead.

Nikolas Alarcio would take first after being hit by a pitch, then advanced to second on Isiah Kiner-Falefa's single back up the box. Catcher Marcus Doi would draw a walk to load the bases, and Garcia-Perreira would bring home Alarcio on a sacrifice-fly to center. Finer-Kalefa would get to third on fielder choice and steal home for the second run of the inning for the Owls.

The Buffanblu would plate three runs in the bottom of the fourth, two of them on a Beau Branton double down the left field line, to take a 3-2 advantage after four complete.

But Mid-Pacific would answer back in the top of the fifth, sparked by Brent Sakurai and Bryce Asao's back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. A throwing error would bring in Sakurai, and a second bad throw would allow Murata to come home as well. Doi would add another single to score Alarcio, and Daniel Fentriss would add another RBI on a sacrifice fly to extend the Owls lead to 6-3.

"Punahou's pitching is so tough... we just wanted to try and score runs any way we can," remarked Muramaru.

The Owls would finish with just five hits, all of them singles.

Punahou would add another run in the bottom of the fifth to close the score to 6-4, as KJ Harrison would triple to right center and come home on dropped flyball, but would not get any closer, as the combination of Garcia-Perreira's arm and some timely defense would shut the door on any comeback in the final two frames.

As Muramaru pointed out, "there were a lot of really well hit balls that just happened to be hit right at our guys."

Shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa lead the way offensively for the Owls, finishing 2-for-4 with 2 runs and an RBI.

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