ALA WAI — The Saint Francis baseball team doesn't give out many round trip tickets.

Strong pitching by Saint Francis starter Jared Yara and Zach Alcos helped the Saints strand 10 Damien runners on base en route to a 5-1 win over the Monarchs at Ala Wai Field Friday night.

Yara, a 6-foot senior that starts at catcher when he's not pitching, struck out a season-high 10 batters in five innings of work to help the Saints improve to 9-0 atop the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II standings.

Alcos came in for Yara with the tying run on deck with no outs in the bottom of the sixth inning and struck out three batters while giving up just one hit to earn the save.

"Damien is always a tough opponent," said Saint Francis coach Kip Akana. "We came out, we pitched well, played solid defense and we were able to hold them to one run. That's pretty much the difference in the game."

Yara was tagged for seven hits, but had inning-ending strikeouts to end the first, second, third and fifth inning to end multiple scoring opportunities for the Monarchs (5-4).

"They have a good pitcher in Yara," said Damien coach Timo Donahue. "He's probably the best pitcher in our division, maybe he'd shut down some bigger schools I would think. His fast ball velocity is pretty good and he mixed in that breaking pitch, tried to get him our sooner but I thought our guys fared well I thought facing him."

Yara was smooth under pressure. The Saints got the first two outs of the bottom of the first inning without trouble before giving up an error and a hit to put two guys on base. Yara ended the threat one batter later by striking out Jayden Cabbab looking.

In the third inning, Yara gave up a double to Jordan Donahue to start, but fanned the next three batters to negate the runner in scoring position.

The same batting order came around to start the bottom of the fifth. Yara struck out Donahue looking and got Kaimana Cameron to swing and miss, but allowed a base hit to Pomai Kim into right field, and an error on the play allowed Kim to advance to third base. It was all for naught however as Yara struck out Cabbab one batter latter on his 94th pitch of the night.

"That actually happens a lot to me," Yara said on his ability to strand runners. "Every game I think I have at least two innings where I strand either a runner on third or a runner on second. They get that hit, but I don't let it shake me and I make sure they don't score."

Yara, who allowed just one walk in the first five innings of work, tired out in the sixth and walked the first two batters before giving way to Alcos, who started at second base. Alcos did his part and struck out two of the next three batters to advance the game into its final frame.

Kim, who went 3-for-4 to lead Damien at the plate, got a two-out double to extend the game in the seventh inning, but Alcos fanned Chayne Wayton one batter later to end the contest.

Akana said this year's team has the deepest pitching talent that he's had so far.

"Yara is a senior. He's able to hold them down. That's what we expect out of him. He's the most experienced pitcher we have out there. He threw a lot of strikes. He was at above 100 pitches and started to get a little bit tired, but Alcos was able to come in with his great curve ball and do his job."

Javin Cortez (2-3) was charged with the loss for the Monarchs, getting tagged for three earned runs and five hits while walking seven and striking out four in 5 and 1/3 innings of work. Kayson Kajiwara finished the game on the mound for Damien and allowed no hits, but did give up a walk with the bases loaded for Saint Francis' final run of the night.

Yara drew a 0-3 walk to start the second inning to get the Saints' first run on base. His courtesy runner, Kenny Rah, scored two batters later on James Yamasaki's RBI double that squeezed the right foul line. After Cortez walked Reece Kadota, freshman Chase Akana's single plated Yamasaki to give the Saints a 2-0 lead.

Damien's lone run of the night got on base after Yara threw four straight balls to Akila Arrechi with one out in the bottom of the second. Arrechi scored one batter later on catcher Kana Schuman's RBI triple into right field.

Saint Francis answered in the top of the third with Yara's RBI triple that went deep into the left-center alley to plate Makana Poole, who reached on an error.

The Saints' last runs of the game came on bases-loaded walks in the fifth and sixth inning. Senior Shawn Ellis, a reserve offensive lineman, was credited with both RBIs in those two innings.