Chase Wago admitted he was a lot less nervous in his second start against Saint Louis.
Even with a tournament championship on the line.
In the first of potentially three elimination games this week, No. 1 Mid-Pacific ended No. 5 Saint Louis’ season — for now — with a 4-1 victory on Tuesday in the ILH postseason tournament.
The Owls (12-3), who were upset by ‘Iolani on Saturday, host the Raiders today at 3:30 p.m.
Mid-Pacific has already clinched a state berth, but needs to beat ‘Iolani twice to claim the tournament title and earn the ILH’s seeded berth in the state tournament.
If the Raiders win either of the two games against MPI, ‘Iolani would be crowned the tournament champion and force a playoff with MPI for the league’s seeded state berth.
If ‘Iolani loses twice, it will then play Saint Louis (7-8), which finished second in the regular season, to determine which team gets to play on in states.
“We’re going to have to play the waiting game and check the computers,” Saint Louis coach George Gusman said.
Wago gave up five runs in 31⁄3 innings against Saint Louis in his first varsity start with the Owls earlier this season.
The freshman left-hander got the ball again against the Crusaders on Tuesday and made the most of it, taking a shutout into the seventh inning.
He allowed five hits and did not walk a batter, keeping Saint Louis on its toes with a variety of offspeed pitches.
“I had the timing down on my pitches a lot better because I had more time in practice to work on them,” Wago said. “I hit my spots a lot more and kept the ball down.”
Kaimi Umebayashi singled and scored on a wild pitch in the seventh inning to break up the shutout bid.
The game featured dueling catchers ranked in Baseball America’s Top 100 of high school prospects.
Mid-Pacific’s Marcus Doi, ranked 49th overall, hit an RBI single in the third and drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, leading to MPI’s fourth run.
Saint Louis’ Iolana Akau, who is ranked No. 97, singled off Wago with two outs in the first and flied out to center twice.
Both are committed to the University of Hawaii.
“(Wago) was more consistent with first-pitch strikes,” Akau said. “We have to sit around and now make sure we’re ready to go if we get an opportunity to play again.”
Doi was impressed with how Wago performed as a freshman in such an important game.
“First time they got him, but we made some adjustments and (Wago) changed his mind-set,” Doi said. “He seemed more confident out there.”
Shortstop Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, who has committed to San Jose State to play with Saint Louis alumnus Kalei Contrades, went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
A two-out error by DJ Dureg at second allowed the Owls to score the first two runs of the game in the third on singles by Doi and Bryce Asao.
Kiner-Falefa drove in a run with a two-out RBI single in the fourth, and Cameron Igarashi bunted home courtesy runner Bryce Nagata in the fifth.
Zeke Wallace, who closed for Saint Louis much of the year, gave up two earned runs on six hits in five innings with four walks and two strikeouts.
“Zeke hadn’t pitched against Mid-Pac before and in my eyes, he did a perfect job coming in and throwing strikes,” Akau said.
MPI is 3-1 this season against ‘Iolani, which is 5-1 since snapping a five-game losing streak.
At Mid-Pacific Institute
Saint Louis 000 000 1 — 1 5 2
Mid-Pacific 002 110 x — 4 8 1
Zeke Wallace, Marcus Ornelles (6) and Iolana Akau. Chase Wago and Marcus Doi. W—Wago. L—Wallace.
Leading hitters—MPI: Isaiah Kiner-Falefa 2-3, run, RBI; Bryce Asao 2-3, RBI.
