Sophomore Carter Rustad and Mid-Pacific take on junior Kahi Bisho and Punahou Friday night. ScoringLive photo illustration

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Mid-Pacific has won the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I baseball crown in each of the past five seasons, but if a sixth consecutive title is in its future, it will have to do so with an almost entirely new cast of characters.

The Owls, who have just three seniors on their roster, will open defense of their league championship Friday, when they take on Punahou in the nightcap of an ILH doubleheader at Hans L'Orange Park.

There are a lot of question marks surrounding longtime coach Dunn Muramaru's squad.

"We only return two guys — Zachary Gushiken and Kyle Layugan — and both of them weren't go-to guys last year, so we're basically starting kind of new," Muramaru said.

Among the players who graduated after the 2016 season were stalwarts Jacob Maekawa and Chase Wago.

"Those were veteran guys that have been playing for a while and we had them all these past years, so we're hoping some of that rubs off on these kids," Muramaru said.

Muramaru said newcomers Wyatt Young at shortstop, Jacob Yoshino at third, and centerfielder/pitcher Breyndon Nakamura will be looked upon to help fill the void left behind by last year's group.

The Owls fared well in the preseason, with their only loss coming at the hands of Saint Louis.

"We played all right," Muramaru said. "We had the summer to play, but once the ILH starts it's a different animal. With kids, you don't know how they're going to act. It's our first game so we're really not sure how we're going to do."

At the other end of the spectrum, Punahou is loaded with familiar faces.

"We have twenty returnees and we kept a lot of guys this year," third-year coach Keenan Sue said.

The Buffanblu have about 30 players, more than Sue would typically keep, but with the new pitch-count limits in play this season he opted for surplus of arms at his disposal.

"We don't really know how that will play out so just as a precaution we kept a few more pitchers than we normally do," Sue said. "On top of that our pitchers are young, unproven arms, so out of that sort of stable of kids, we're hoping one or two or three will step up into larger roles as they get comfortable."

Punahou has won 13 state baseball championships, but the last came in 2010, which was the last in a string of unprecedented seven consecutive titles. After missing out on the state tournament three straight seasons, it broke that streak last year.

The Buffanblu went 14-10 last year, when they qualified for states as the ILH's second representative and finished seventh.

"I think last year we did a lot better than we thought we were going to do, which is nice, but now obviously the expectation is that once we've arrived at that stage, we should be there every year," said Sue, who has 17 seniors this season.

Despite the expectations surrounding the program — most of it from within — Sue has forced his team to take a one-pitch-at-a-time approach.

"It's easy to get caught up in stuff and it's pretty cliche, but really we're focused on just winning the next pitch," Sue said. "We're just trying to break up the season into pitches and just try to compete on each other. I think if we do that, we find ourselves in the mix at the end of the year."

Sophomore right-hander Carter Rustad will start for Mid-Pacific, while junior righty Kahi Bisho will take the ball for Punahou.

First pitch between the Owls and Buffanblu is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. and will follow the game between Kamehameha and Saint Louis at 4 p.m.