Pac-Five's Karley Ann Yoshioka attempts to make a throw to first against Saint Francis. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

Alisha Candelario and Shazzareigh Nakoa-Chun drove in two runs apiece and Karley Yoshioka was a perfect 3 for 3 batting to lead Pac-Five to a 9-6 win over Saint Francis Monday afternoon.

The Wolf Pack (1-4) built a 5-0 lead, only to see that dissipate before adding four late runs to capture their first win of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu season at Ala Wai Field in a game that was called after six innings due to darkness.

Cameron Peterson also went 2 for 4 at the plate for Pac-Five, which battered Saint Francis pitcher Tiare Guerrero for 12 hits in all.

It was the first game against a non-Division I opponent for the D2 Wolf Pack.

"The girls are pretty happy about getting that first win," Pac-Five coach Cecil Hasegawa said. "The whole team is a bunch of fighters. So far we've played all the D1 teams pretty tough. I mean, they kind of walked away from us, but not that bad. Our last game was very encouraging — it wasn't against Punahou — and we only lost 5-3, so that was morale booster for the girls coming into this one."

Starting pitcher Megan Yoshioka — no relation to Karley — went four-plus innings before surrendering a solo home run to leadoff batter Danielle Antolin and was replaced by Kiara Peterson. However, after retiring the first batter she faced, Peterson walked the next four and Yoshioka re-entered the game. She finished the game and picked up the win, allowed three runs — one unearned — on seven hits. She walked three and struck out none.

"Megan went as far as she could go," Hasegawa said. "When she gave up that home run, that solid hit down the left field line, that's when I yanked her. Against Maryknoll she went six (innings) and then she kind of wore off, so I kind of knew her limit would be four innings, solid, so I was ready to pull her already, but after the home run the next pitcher couldn't do much better."

Pac-Five struck early with three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Brazzlyn Tovio-Asato hit a bloop single to short centerfield, which allowed Karly Yoshioka to score and one batter later, Candelario doubled to left, which plated both Noelle Nakamura and Tovio-Asato.

Tovio-Asato led off the bottom of the third inning with a walk and Candelario reached on a bunt single to set-up Nakoa-Chun's RBI single to center to score Tovio-Asato. Peterson then hit a sacrifice fly to left field that allowed Candelario to score.

Saint Francis got on the board with Rasela Vili's RBI-single in the top of the fourth to score Shaye Simms.

The Saints sent 10 batters to the plate in the fifth inning. Antolin led off with her solo homer that went over the head of Nakamura in left field and Katilin Santos scored when Jordan Lovell drew a bases-loaded walk off Peterson to make the score 5-3. Korrie Matsumura followed with a sac fly that scored Guerrero from third and Vili hit a two-out single to center that plated the tying run in Simms.

"I just told them that they had to start focusing and if they really wanted to win this game they had to go out there and get it, because I felt we were pretty much in command of the game, until that fifth inning," Hasegawa said.

Karley Yoshioka said her team never panicked despite blowing a five-run lead.

"We just had to stay positive, because we knew we could come back since we got a five-run lead early, so we just put all the hits together and executed to get back up," Yoshioka said. "We changed pitchers, so we had to adjust to that and then we changed back, so we just had to calm down and get all the outs."

The Wolf Pack didn't wait long to return the favor. Candelario led off the bottom of the fifth with a bloop single to center and came around to score on an RBI triple by Nakoa-Chun that found the gap in right center. Peterson laid down a bunt single next, which allowed Nakoa-Chun to score and Karley Yoshioka hit a sacrifice fly to plate the third run of the inning.

"They jumped on us, 5-0, and we had a lot of (mental) errors, too, which didn't help us, and I don't think Tiare pitched her best game, but Pac-Five is a pretty decent hitting team — I mean, they're going to hit the ball — so we had to almost play a perfect game to keep the game close," Saint Francis coach Randy Langsi said.

Each team added a run in the sixth inning before the umpires called the game with sunlight running out.

Langsi made no excuses for his team afterward.

"I'm not going to blame this loss because of darkness," Langsi said. "It's just a judgment call, but I told our girls it doesn't really matter (because) we had light from the very first pitch until the sixth inning, so we had a lot of time to play and we had every opportunity."

Antolin, Simms and Vili each paired hits for the Saints (2-3), who saw their two-game winning streak snapped with the loss.

Both teams have two more games to play this week. Saint Francis takes on fifth-ranked Maryknoll Wednesday and fourth-ranked Punahou Saturday, while Pac-Five takes on Sacred Hearts Wednesday and Iolani Saturday.