Kapolei's Cobey Fujii heads towards home plate to score a run in the Hurricanes' win over Radford. Michael Lasquero | SL

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KAPOLEI — Kamea Wong was firmly in command Saturday.

The junior left-hander struck out nine batters in six innings of work to help Kapolei stay unbeaten with an 8-2 win over visiting Radford on a sunny, humid early afternoon.

The Hurricanes improved to 5-0 to strengthen their hold on first place in the eight-team Division II of the Oahu Interscholastic Association.

The Rams, who entered the weekend one game behind Kapolei in a two-way tie for second, fell to 3-2 and saw their three-game win streak snapped.

"I'm just pleased with the performance that each of our boys put out today," Kapolei coach Tom Ebanez said. "There's some things we still have to work on, but all in all, I'm pleased. You know when you're 4-0 and teams come to your place, you're a marked person. Everyone wants to knock you down, so I'm pleased with the way they handled themselves today."

Wong turned in his best performance on the mound this season. He held Radford's bats in check to just four hits — with both runs coming in the third inning — and walked only one batter to improve to 2-0 on the year.

"He was good," Rams' coach Jacob Sur said of Wong. "He battled, he doesn't walk guys, he threw strikes — that's all you want. He did a good job; he did what he was supposed to do."

Wong stranded five base runners in scoring position. It was Radford's lowest scoring output of the season. It entered the game averaging nine runs scored per game.

"In the beginning I was just throwing fastballs trying to blow them away, but they just started catching up to it, so I just started coming with the curve," said Wong. "I'm just happy that my defense backed me up. We had a couple errors, but we got through it. We know how to handle the pressure."

Radford, on the other hand, couldn't overcome four errors, which led to five unearned runs allowed between pitchers Carter Ogino and Jacob Nishitomi.

The Hurricanes opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning. Andrei Stoyanow led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Landon Kuroda. Two batters later, Shaden Ramelb reached on a bunt single to put runners at the corners.

Leadoff hitter Isaac Badua then put down a bunt that was fielded by Radford first baseman Tayvis Passos, but Ogino failed to cover the bag for what would have been the third out. Instead, Stoyanow scored and Ramelb touched home after a throwing error by third baseman Richard Akana III on a backdoor attempt on Badua.

"(Ogino) was in there throwing strikes in the beginning, but just mental mistakes killed us," Sur said. "That was a big mental mistake in the second inning not covering — that's two runs and it's a different ball game. We may be up 2-0 instead of a tied game, 2-2."

The Rams got a pair of runs in the top of the third on a two-out, two-run triple by Albalos that scored Nishitomi from third and Dylan Lewis from first.

However, Kapolei reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the inning when Joe Uesato drew a four-pitch walk and came around to score on another Radford error.

Wong said the Uesato's run put him at ease after a tough third inning.

"It gave me more cushion so I don't have that much pressure on me and I can do my thing and my defense can back me up," he said.

The Hurricanes stretched their lead to 5-2 with two more runs in the fourth when Ty-Noah Williams singled, stole second, advanced to third on an error and scored on a fielder's choice and Badua also scored on a wild pitch.

Ebanez, whose team was coming off three consecutive five-inning mercy rule wins, said his team showed resiliency to battle back.

"We were down against Kalaheo in our first game, but these kids just know that you're going to have to compete seven innings with us, so they don't pressure out, they don't do anything like that," he said. "We're just pretty even keel. Pack your lunch when you have to play us."

Kapolei was aggressive on the base paths as it recorded nine stolen bases against Radford pitching, including three apiece by Badua and Cobey Fujii.

The Hurricanes added three more runs in the sixth inning.

Kapolei utilized its deep bench with six pinch hitters — three of them got a hit.

"We've got a lot of depth, we've got a lot of guys that want to get in there and like I've said before, everybody up here is wanting to compete and contribute to a win, so whoever we put in I've got total faith in them," Ebanez said.

Badua drove in two runs and scored two others to pace the offense. Wong threw 89 pitches — 58 of them for strikes — and was lifted after the sixth inning. Jacob Filio recorded the final three outs for Kapolei.

It was an especially satisfying performance for Wong, who missed most of last season due to an arm injury.

"It feels super good that I can finally show what I can do and it's just boring playing on the bench," Wong said. "I just wanted some action on the field."

No one was happier for Wong than Ebanez.

"If you saw him after we took him out, he was running and we don't have to tell him those kinds of things," Ebanez said. "The kid just wants to compete and make sure he's at his best form when his number is called."

Both teams return to the field Wednesday. Kapolei will host Kalaheo while Radford will visit Farrington.