Mid-Pacific Institute thwarted 'Iolani's attempt to grab early control of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu baseball race yesterday, rallying past the visiting Raiders, 5-4.

It was the ILH opener for the Owls, while 'Iolani fell to 2-1.

The Raiders played three league games this past week because of an upcoming trip to Southern California, while four ILH teams have yet to begin the regular season.

"We had to stop them, otherwise they would be in the driver's seat," said MPI catcher Aaron Fujiki, who drove in the go-ahead run with a fifth-inning double to make it 4-3. "We were too anxious early on, but once we calmed down and started relaxing, everything was all right."

Courtesy runner Michael Arakaki later scored on a two-out error to put the Owls up, 5-3. 'Iolani closed to 5-4 in the sixth when Brennan Nacario singled with one out and eventually scored on freshman pinch-hitter Jarret Arakawa's towering single down the right-field line.

But MPI reliever Dane Kinoshita escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam by getting a force play at home and an infield fly to end the inning.

In the seventh, the Raiders had runners on second and third with two outs when closer Robert Dittrick got a 3-2 fastball over the outside corner for a called third strike to end the game.

"Physically, we're playing about as well as you can ask for, but we've been making a lot of mental mistakes," 'Iolani coach Dean Yonamine said. "You can excuse the physical (shortcomings), you can excuse the pitchers for not throwing (at) their best. But the mental part — that's inexcusable. We need to play smarter."

Two mistakes proved costly.

The first came in the fifth, after MPI's Todd Nagamine led off with a single to center. The next batter, Russell Doi, then pushed a sacrifice bunt toward first base and the pitcher fielded it cleanly but threw into the dirt and past first baseman Reyn Nagamine into right field, allowing Nagamine to circle the bases and putting Doi at third.

Doi then scored on Fujiki's double over the left fielder's head.

In the sixth, the Raiders' Grant Liu led off with a walk, but a pinch runner was picked off by Fujiki after the second pitch.

"I saw him out of the corner of my eye," Fujiki said. "We gotta take advantage of other teams' mistakes."

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.