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EWA BEACH — Back in the win column.

No. 10 Pearl City broke open a pitcher's duel in the bottom of the fifth inning and got six strong innings from Drew Boyles for a key 4-1 league win over Campbell Wednesday afternoon.

The win puts the Chargers (7-2) in prime position to clinch a first round bye in next week's OIA Division-I playoffs with one game left in the regular season.

It was a much-needed win for Pearl City, who blew an 8-3 lead to Mililani (7-2) last Saturday in a 11-10 loss.

"Campbell, Mililani, all of the west, we play each other really tough so every game is big for us," said Pearl City assistant coach Eric Boyles. "It's a very important win. They needed this win to bounce back from the last loss."

Both the Chargers and Sabers (6-3) left runners on base in each of the first four innings, but it was Pearl City who was able to strike first. A pair of first-pitch strikes by nine-hole hitter Ethan Higashionna and Drew Boyles. Dacoda Agoto then drew a walk to load the bases before Devin Hayashi's slap shot into left field scored the opening run.

Campbell subbed out starter Hunter Lindsey for Brandon Dimaya after Hayashi's RBI single. Dimaya managed to get a strikeout for the second out of the inning, but sandwiched it in between two bases-loaded walks that scored Pearl City's next two runs.

Shane Ramelb came in after the Chargers scored the third run and walked another batter with the bases loaded before getting a strikeout to end the inning.

"We saw Lindsey, he's a good pitcher, he throws a lot of strikes, he's very effective and he mixes it up well. We try to tell our hitters to go after the first pitch because he likes to get ahead so look for that first good one," said coach Boyles.

"It worked on a few of them and then they got a little erratic after that. We are just very fortunate to come up with those runs at the time."

Coach Boyles' son, Drew, got his first pitching win in his first extended stay of the year. He threw 102 pitches across six innings, giving up three hits and allowing just one run that came in the sixth inning. He also struck out seven batters while walking just two.

Fielding was also excellent as the Chargers worked hard to get outs. Second baseman Tyson Murakami prevented a run from scoring in the top of the fourth when he stopped a ball from going through the infield and spun around in time to make the throw to first. Higashionna had a leaping grab in the top of the sixth to stop a line drive from reaching the outfield and outfielder Jayson Au Hoy sacrificed himself into a fence trying to track down a foul ball in the seventh.

"Our defense, they play for each other, they leave it out there," said Boyles. "They're tight, this group is pretty tight. Even though we have a couple of freshman starters, the older boys support them and they hold them up and encourage them. That's very big for the bonding of this team. They all want to win."

Hayashi tossed two strikeouts in the seventh to earn his second save of the season, with both save situations coming against the Sabers. The Chargers are now 6-0 on the season when Hayashi records a pitching appearance.

Pearl City will hold a blessing for its new synthetic field on Friday and debut it on Saturday in a 9 a.m. contest against Leilehua to close out the regular season.

The Chargers will also be playing close attention to the Sabers' contest against Mililani on Friday night. A Campbell win over the Trojans will allow Pearl City an opportunity to lock up the West's top seed in the playoffs with a win over the Mules.

If both Mililani and the Chargers win this weekend, the two teams will both have a first round bye in the playoffs and will have a coin flip to determine the top seed. The two teams split against each other and would have split against Leilehua in this scenario.