Mid-Pacific earns key road victory over 'Iolani, 13-3


Mid-Pacific's Marcus Doi celebrates a run scored against 'Iolani. Brien Ing | SL
Mid-Pacific exploded for five runs on six hits and Travis Garcia-Perreira allowed two runs on four hits in five innings pitched yesterday to help the Owls rout 'Iolani, 13-3, in Interscholastic League of Honolulu baseball action.

The road victory -- shortened to six innings by the 10-run rule -- vaulted MPI into sole possession of first place in the ILH at 5-0. The Raiders fell to 1-4.

The teams will complete their three-game series at 3 p.m. today at the Owls' Damon Field.

Mid-Pacific took a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning after Justin Protacio led off with a walk, stole second and third and then scored on Marcus Doi's groundout. The Owls then batted around in the fourth with five runs on six hits and two errors, starting with back-to-back doubles by Doi and Dane Fujinaka and followed RBI singles from Cy Higashi, Daniel Fentriss and Protacio to make it 6-0.

That broke up a pitcher's duel between Garcia-Perreira and Carlos Rodriguez, a hard-throwing left-hander who has signed a national letter of intent to play for Oregon State University next season.

"I knew this atmosphere would be big, I was expecting a close game," said Garcia-Perreira, a 6-foot, 180-pound junior left-hander. "I just tried to keep them off-balanced, that's what we stressed all week. When we got the lead, things came a lot easier, I was able to throw more strikes. It was mostly fastballs, throwing it wherever the catcher (Fujinaka) put his glove."

MPI extended the lead to 9-0 in the fifth after a wild pitch, a bases-loaded walk to Tyler Tonaki and Fentriss' run-scoring single to right.

Rodriguez left after 4 and 1/3 innings, allowing five earned runs on six hits, four walks and one balk, with only two strikeouts.

"He wasn't at his best, and we didn't help him when we couldn't make plays," said 'Iolani coach Jason Arakaki.

Owls coach Dunn Muramaru said he thought Rodriguez' fastball lost some velocity as the game went on.

"Those first three or four pitches he threw to Justin had to be in the upper 80s (mph)," Muramaru said. "But I don't think he was throwing as hard later."

Mid-Pacific added four more runs in the sixth after an error, RBI singles by Garcia-Perreira and pinch-hitter Yoshinori Tanaka, and Higashi's sacrifice fly.

The Raiders finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth with Christian Donahue's two-run triple and Jensen Park's RBI single, but it was not enough to extend the game to regulation.