Iolani's Joshua Inouye throws a pitch to the plate against Mid-Pacific. Tyler Kanoa | Special to SL

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Iolani's Caleb Duhay attempts to make contact with a pitch against Mid-Pacific. Evan Asato | SL

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Mid-Pacific's Tyler Yamaguchi makes a throw to the first against Iolani. Tyler Kanoa | Special to SL

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Iolani's Max Look celebrates after a run scored against Mid-Pacific. Tyler Kanoa | Special to SL

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MANOA--In the second game of an Interscholastic League of Honolulu quadruple header at Les Murakami Stadium at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, ’Iolani pitcher Joshua Inouye had a three-hitter and the Raiders (5-3) exploded for five runs in the bottom of the fifth to shut out Mid-Pacific (6-2-1), 10-0 in six innings. ‘Iolani’s Max Look scored three runs, Pikai Winchester had two runs and three RBIs and Christian Donahue had two RBIs and two runs. 

“I trusted in my defense and I believed they could get the job done for me,” said Inouye, who recorded five strikeouts.

The Owls dropped their second game in a row and in this game they went through six pitchers. 

In the top of the first inning, Inouye set the tone early as he struck out his first three batters: Bryce Nagata, Cal Muramaru, and Nicholas Bottom in sequence. 

“Our coaching staff tells us it’s about ‘process, process, process’ and my ability to throw strikes is a credit to my defense because if I don’t feel they can’t make plays, then I can’t throw strikes. The confidence in my defense behind me allows me to throw strikes. I was throwing a lot of two-seams and changeups today, I would throw an occasion curveball to keep them honest and my breaking pitches,” said Inouye. 

“Josh is one of our seniors and he’s matured tremendously this year. He was sticking to the process and throwing strikes and his changeup and curveball and fastballs off of strikes. He’s matured tremendously, he keeps on coming after you and puts the ball into play,” said ‘Iolani coach Brent Shimokawa, on Inouye. 

In the bottom of the first inning, lead-off hitter Max Look hit a double to deep left field. Bronson Ichimura hit a single to left field and Look moved to third. Christian Donahue’s sacrifice to first base brought in Look for a run to make it 1-0. Pikai Winchester hit a fly out to left field for the second out. Joshua Inaba hit a single to left field, but Nicholas Bottom threw it to home to catcher Noah Shackles, who tagged out Ichimura at home plate for the third out. 

In the top of the third, Mid-Pacific’s Jarrett Lum got on base after he hit a single past the short stop. Jacob Maekawa bunted the ball and got on base and Lum moved to second. Nagata hit a line drive to third baseman Kainoa Fong for the second out and threw it to first baseman Corey Nakakura for the third out. 

“It’s what our coach instills in us, process, pitchers got to throw strikes and you make the defense to work. When you allow the defense to work, it keeps them awake and keeps them in the game,” said Inouye. 

“The defense is pretty good, our left and right side of our infield is performing really well and when they put the ball in play, they’re making the plays,” said Shimokawa. 

In the bottom of the fifth inning, the bats came alive for the Raiders to jump out to a 7-0 lead. Look got on base after he hit a single to center field. On the next at-bat, Seth Kinel walked Ichimura and Donahue hit an RBI single to bring in Look for a score. Austin Jim On, who came in for Ichimura scored off an RBI from Winchester. Corey Nakakura had a 2RBI single to bring in Donahue and Aaron Nakasone. Matt Campos’ RBI single brought in Bradley Hayashi. 

“What we say is to stick to process all we can control is to hitting the ball hard and see what happens. Fortunately we were able to string of some hits together and had guys on base and cashed it in. Mid-Pac is a very good team and unfortunately they had a bad day and caught luck on our side,” said Shimokawa. 

In the top of the sixth inning, after Jarrett Lum hit a flyout to center field, the game was delayed due to heavy rain and thunder for about 20 minutes. After the delay, Inouye walked Maekawa, Nagata got on base on a single and walked Muramaru to load the bases. However he struck out Bottom and Shackles to end the inning and prevented the Owls from getting on the scoreboard. 

“It affected me a little bit, I knew I was up against a really good team in Mid-Pac and they’re going to get the ball in play, but I just took a little bit longer to warm up. After I walked Muramaru, I was thinking about process, process, process and gotta throw strikes,” said Inouye, on the rain delay. 

“I went out there to mound and told him, ‘I need two more batters and I’m going to take you out.’ The rain delay really put a hamper on his rhythm, but I give him two batters and he got it done in two batters so he did the job today. I was concerned it was going to affect us mentally, but Josh is a very strong-minded person so it took him one or two batters to get back in the groove again, but it didn’t hurt us, it delayed the game a little bit so we tried to stay patient,” said Shimokawa, on the rain delay affecting his team. 

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Shusei Yokoi walked Look and Winchester. Winchester hit a deep 2RBI double to right field to bring in Look and Donahue to make it 9-0. Winchester moved to third after a wild pitch, then scored on a passed ball to make it 10-0 to end the game due to the 10-run mercy rule.  

“We’re very fortunate today, that’s how baseball is, you like to put ball into play and sometimes you hit it at people and sometimes you don’t so fortunately we were in the right positions and made plays in key situations,” said Shimokawa. 

Mid-Pacific will host Punahou on Apr. 2 while ‘Iolani plays Pac-Five on Apr. 3 at Central O’ahu Regional Park. Both teams will play each other again on Apr. 8 at Mid-Pacific.