There are 16 plumeria trees on the slope behind the dugout of the Mid-Pacific Owls. It may be one of the nicest softball fields on O'ahu. Cozy. Good views. Fans like to scatter along the hill, enjoying the shade and sweet scent of those pink plumerias.

The Owls overpowered Pac-Five 11-3 on Wednesday afternoon, much to my surprise. They did it with another freshman ace, Winona Pauline. Between her, freshman Keiko Carlos and sophomore catcher Kaydi Kochi, the Owls are young, talented and promising at those positions. They're a serious contender to win the ILH title, but my hunch is that they'll be at their best later in the season as they jel and mature.

Young teams have done well at the state tournament before. Some of the state's best young players are very young, like Mililani shortstop Courtney Senas, who was position player of the year (Star-Bulletin) as a sophomore. All-state second baseman Kristi Oshiro was also a sophomore last year.

The Mid-Pac baseball team continued the magic yesterday. I went to their game with co-ILH leader Kamehameha yesterday and witnessed one of the greatest comebacks I've seen in 20 years of prep sports coverage. (No, I didn't write the game story.) Down 8-1, the Owls chipped away at Kamehameha's best pitchers. Bryson "Burger" Kenolio was solid as the starter and Chris Pascual's biting curveballs jammed up MPI for a good stretch of the middle innings.

But it was 9-7 with a runner on base in the bottom of the seventh when coach Vern Ramie brought in Alika Pruett to close it out for Kamehameha. Mid-Pac kept chipping away and shocked everyone at Damon Field with a 10-9 victory.

What does it mean? Well, Mid-Pac was already locked out of a shot at the ILH's regular-season title. With two losses and one game left, Kamehameha (9-2) needs to beat Maryknoll tomorrow and hope that Punahou upsets ‘Iolani (10-1). In that case, they'd play a tiebreaker game for the title and a state berth on Monday. If that all sounds quite busy, tomorrow's games are actually make-ups from last Saturday's rainouts.

Anyway, destiny is now in the hands of the ‘Iolani Raiders.

Oh, and the ILH baseball tournament starts on Tuesday. No rest for the weary.

Previous Article: BAC it up
Next Article: Beanie's Golden Rules