Freshman pitcher Aleia Agbayani allowed one run over 5 1/3 innings and drove in three runs for the Raiders, who sent 13 batters to the plate in a nine-run second inning. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Aleia Agbayani kept herself busy Monday afternoon.

The freshman pitcher gave up one run in 5 2/3 innings of five-hit ball and went 3 for 4 at the plate as Iolani defeated Saint Francis, 11-3, in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu game on a sun-drenched day Ala Wai field.

The Raiders rapped out 12 hits — eight of them coming in a nine-run second inning — to improve to 4-2. They have now won three of their last four games and moved ahead of Punahou for third place in the ILH's Division I standings.

It was the fourth loss in the last five games for the Saints, who were coming off a 5-2 win over Punahou Saturday. They fell to 2-4 and remain in second place in the three-team ILH D2 race.

Agbayani drove in three runs and scored two others in the win. She brought in two runs with second-inning single up the middle and belted a solo home run in the third.

"She was tremendous," Iolani coach Dean Yonamine said of Agbayani. "She comes from great DNA, so she's been groomed for this moment so she's ready to go."

Agbayani's parents were standouts on the diamond in their own right. Her father, Benny, Jr., played five seasons in Major League Baseball — most notably with the New York Mets — and her other, the former Niela Guigui, was an all-state softball player at Waialua High School before going on to play at the University of Hawaii.

After giving up an early run in the bottom of the first inning, Agbayani settled down. She retired seven of the next nine hitters she faced and stranded five Saint Francis base runners — all but one of them in scoring position.

"I think I just kind of got more comfortable on the mound after that first inning and my defense was backing me up during that," said Agbayani, a southpaw.

Agbayani recorded two strikeouts and allowed one walk. She pitched the first four innings, gave way to reliever Marley Dyer — who allowed two runs in 1 2/3 innings of work — before re-entering in the bottom of the sixth and getting the final four outs.

"Our pitchers have been throwing pretty well," Yonamine said. "Aleia is tough; she had the win against Maryknoll, too, so she's consistent. She throws a lot of strikes. We don't have someone that is a dominant pitcher so we're going to have to use maybe two, three pitchers a game and our pitchers know that so they're ready to throw."

Aside from the one walk she issued, Agbayani had just one other three-ball count. She threw first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 21 batters she faced and recorded eight groundouts and four flyouts. Thirty-seven of her 61 total pitches were for strikes.

Agbayani often went to a change-up to keep Saint Francis' hitters off-balance.

"She's starting to get a lot more comfortable with that change-up, throwing it no matter what the count is — first pitch, late in the count — so it's good to see," Yonamine said.

Offensively, the Raiders did most of their damage in the second inning, when they 13 batters to the plate. The first eight batters in the inning reached base safely. There were three doubles in the frame by Kennedi Lopes, Kealaulaikalani Gier and Leila Anoina.

"That was just great," Agbayani said. "The team really helped me out there and really gave me that little leverage when I was pitching."

The 11 runs were the second-best scoring output of the season for Iolani, which was coming off of a nine-hit performance in an 11-2 loss to Kamehameha Saturday.

"Kamehameha is a good team — so is Saint Francis — but we tell the girls that we have to create things so we get people on, it is what it is sometimes. You can't always score," Yonamine said. "We try to be a lot more productive than we were against Kamehameha, but in general I've been happy with our hitting so far this season."

Lopes batted 2 for 3 with two RBI and two runs scored. Cassie Ho went 2 for 3 with a triple and scored a run and Macy Uyehara also scored twice for the Raiders, who recently returned from the mainland where they went 5-3 and finished sixth in the 16-team Desert Mountain Invitational in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Skye Ah Yat drove in two runs for the Saints, who used three pitchers in the game. Starter Caryn Chinen allowed five runs on six hits before being lifted in the second inning and was the losing pitcher.

Both teams return to the field Wednesday. Iolani will play Pac-Five and Saint Francis will take on Sacred Hearts. First pitch for both games are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at Ala Wai field.