Sumi Pruett pitched two-hit ball over 5 2/3 innings of emergency relief and Pearl City knocked off second-seeded Mid-Pacific, 3-1, Wednesday, in a quarterfinal of the Wally Yonamine Foundation Division I state baseball tournament at Les Murakami Stadium.

The defending champion Chargers (11-6), the only Oahu team left in the championship bracket, will play third-seeded and Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Waiakea in a semifinal, 4 p.m. Thursday. The other semifinal pits Maui champion Baldwin against Big Island runner-up Hilo at 7 p.m. Not since 1999, when eventual state champion Molokai, Hilo and Kauai, has three Neighbor Island teams have made the semifinals.

Pruett was summoned from first base with one out in the top of the second inning with a 2-1 count on Daniel Fentriss to replace starter Sean Milan. After a 1-0 pitch, Pearl City called an injury timeout to check on Milan. After a couple of minutes, he threw his second pitch with no apparent issues, but on his third pitch, he felt a twinge and was replaced by Pruett. Pruett walked Fentriss, but retired Skyler Tengan on a grounder to short for an inning-ending double play.

"I think he had small-kind tightening up in his shoulder," Pearl City coach Mitch Yamato said. "He got it worked on and he should be all right."

It wasn't a case of aggravating a previous injury, Yamato said.

"The issue was he might have tried to do too much or something," Yamato said.

But Pruett delivered.

"He has nerves of steel," Yamato said of Pruett. "He's been in big situations. I've had him since he was 10-years old. He's always the guy with the cool attitude. He has composure, so he's geared up for that."

Pruett walked two and struck out two. The run he allowed scored on a passed ball and was unearned.

"Mostly my fastball is pretty much all I threw," Pruett said. "A threw a couple sliders, but they weren't breaking too well, so I just stuck with my fastball."


Travis Garcia-Perreira settled down after a rough first inning for the Owls (15-3). He pitched six innings, allowing three run, two earned, six hits and a walk with three strikeouts. But it was enough to do him in.

The Chargers staked Milan with a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Tyler Tokunaga led off with a double, took third on Reid Akau's sacrifice to the pitcher and scored on Tanner Tokunaga's bunt single to third. After stealing second, Tanner Tokunaga advanced to third when Kamalu Neal flied out to right. Noah Derby followed with an RBI single to right-center to make it 2-0.

Pearl City padded its lead in the fourth. Pruett led off with a double to left-center and was lifted for courtesy runner Brock Honda. Honda went to third when Matt Tsutomi grounded out to second. After Jason Komoda struck out, Honda scored on a passed ball with Tyler Tokunaga at the plate to make it 3-0.

The Owls finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth. Tengan walked with one out, took second on a passed ball and scored on Bryce Asao's single. Although Brent Sakurai reached on an error to move pinch runner Ryne Saiki to second, Pruett retired Cal Muramaru on a foul pop bunt to the catcher and got Nickolas Alarcio to pop out to second to end the threat.

Yamato said it's possible Milan could pitch in Thursday's semifinal, depending on how he feels.

"Game by game," Yamato said. "Yeah, it does throw off the rotation a little bit, but we'll be all right. We still have a little bit of arsenal."