Saint Louis pitcher Chase Meilleur gave up a season-high eight hits against Punahou, but did not have a earned run charged against him in a 11-5 win. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Punahou nearly matched Saint Louis in hits, 10 to 11, but was behind the eight ball for most of the game as the top-ranked Crusaders (5-1) cruised to a 11-5 victory last Saturday.

Although Saint Louis right-handed pitcher Chase Meilleur scattered a season-high eight hits across six innings in the win, his ability to get ahead in the count put the Crusaders' defense in a favorable situation against the Buffanblu (4-2).

Meilleur threw 12 first pitch strikes against the 27 batters he faced and did not have a earned run charged against him in his third pitching win of the season. Out of the 85 pitches he threw, 52 were strikes.

Saint Louis also recorded the first out on the first batter of the inning in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

"Their pitcher did a tremendous job," said Punahou coach Keenan Sue, whose team is ranked third in the Hawaiian Electric/ScoringLive Baseball Power Rankings. "He threw a lot of strikes and had a lot of first pitch strikes and first outs. Whenever you do that as a pitcher, you're going to have a good game. It's hard to come back and score runs after."

The two runs that Punahou scored while Meilleur was on the mound came in thanks to a fielding error in the top of the first. Punahou leadoff hitter Cole Cabrera got on base thanks to an error on the first baseman and two-hole hitter Noah Goss brought him home with a sharp double to left field.

Codey Kitagawa was walked after Goss' double before Jerick Nomura grounded into a double play to score Goss. Had Cabrera been tagged, Goss' run wouldn't have scored and Meilleur wouldn't have had any runs against him.

"Chase is a dominant pitcher," said Matt Wong, who had a double, triple and three RBIs for the Crusaders. "He'll get the outs when we need it. That first inning Noah Goss had a nice hit and we didn't come up with the catch so they just capitalized on all the mistakes we made."

The Crusaders made up for their early miscues with a four-run effort in the bottom of the first to give them a two-run lead. Meilleur gave up two straight hits to start the second, but buckled down and had a near-flawless game the rest of the way.

"Chase usually gets a lot sharper," said Saint Louis coach George Gusman. "Fortunately we answered back in the bottom of the first to turn the momentum so that was big for us."

Saint Louis plated seven more runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 11-2 game, hindering any comeback attempt by the Buffanblu. In three of the Punahou's four wins so far this season, it trailed after the fifth inning.

"Every run we scored in that inning was big," said Gusman.

The Crusaders take the field at Iolani Tuesday afternoon at 3:45 p.m.