WAIPAHU — The North Shore Honu let golden scoring opportunities get away in the first two innings, but Dustin Martin wasn't about to let it happen again in the fourth.

Martin, the designated hitter, hit a go-ahead three-run homer to right field in the fourth to power the Honu over the West Oahu CaneFires, 6-2, last night at Hans L'Orange Park.

Five Honu relievers combined for seven scoreless innings and 12 strikeouts.

Blake DeWitt and Rodney Choy Foo opened the fourth with singles off right-handed reliever Toyojii Matsumura.

Martin, a left-handed batter, went deep on a 1-2 pitch to put the Honu ahead 3-2.

"I was just trying to hit the ball hard, I guess," Martin said. "I missed the pitch before that. I thought I should have driven that one pretty well. I was just telling myself to find the release point and he hung a split-finger for me and I got good wood on it and it went."

Koby Clemens later reached on a fielding error by the first baseman and scored on a ground out by Issei Nakamura.

In each of the first two innings North Shore had a runner at third with no outs and came away empty against lefty Ryan Phillips.

"That's a pet peeve of mine," Honu manager Dave Clark said. "You get a runner at third base with no outs, with less than two outs, and you have to find a way to get him in, and we didn't do a good job of that tonight."

Left-hander Wesley Wright started for the Honu and allowed two runs in the first without the ball leaving the infield. The CaneFires had two infield singles and benefitted from two errors in the inning.

Wright allowed just a walk in the second, and the five relievers slammed the door.

Keisuke Hayashi went two innings, winner Joe Thatcher pitched two perfect innings, and Satoshi Yamazaki, Scott Koerber and Robert Hinton each worked an inning.

"We struggled the first inning or so, but the bullpen came in and did a hell of a job for us," Clark said.

The CaneFires had the bases loaded with two outs in the third, but Hayashi got John Whittleman to pop out to second base.

They also loaded the bases in the eighth with one out, but Koerber struck out Emeron Frostad and got Makoto Moriyama to ground out to third.

"We had some guys at the plate who could hit the ball out of the ball park with the bases loaded, but just couldn't come up with that big hit," West Oahu manager Todd Claus said.

North Shore went 5 for 5 on stolen-base attempts.

"These kids are here to learn," Clark said. "If we have a situation where we can steal a base, we're going to run."

Reach Kyle Sakamoto at ksakamoto@honoluluadvertiser.com.