Dunn Muramaru started the day with a phone call a head coach never wants to receive on game day.

"A nurse calls me up this morning and says, ‘I’ve got Travis (Garcia-Perreira) in here,’ " the Mid-Pacific baseball coach said. "So the whole game I was more worried about him than anything else."

The Owls’ senior, who had been ill since Sunday, pitched MPI to an ILH championship, going the distance in a 5-2 win over visiting Kamehameha in a one-game playoff for the outright league title and first-round bye in next week’s state tournament.

Garcia-Perreira allowed one earned run on five hits, walking three and striking out eight.

"Nothing was going to stop me from pitching today," a visibly worn-down Garcia-Perreira said after the game. "This is something you work for every year, to be champions of your league."

The second-ranked Owls finished the regular season tied at 14-2 with No. 3 Kamehameha, which had won 13 games in a row.

Both teams, along with Punahou, had already secured a berth in the state tournament, but the coveted first-round bye came down to the final week.

On Saturday, Mid-Pacific beat Saint Louis, which upset Punahou two days earlier, to force a playoff against the Warriors.

Without knowing how much Garcia-Perreira would be able to give them, the Owls made it as easy as they could on the senior left-hander, staking him to a 3-0 lead in the first inning.

Junior catcher Marcus Doi delivered the only hit of the inning — an RBI double off the top of the fence in right field — but a walk and two errors allowed MPI to turn it into a big inning.

"It was big game for everybody and we didn’t take care of the ball like we should have," Kamehameha coach Vern Ramie said. "We had a miscommunication on a bunt play that cost us."

After allowing a one-out double to Trey Kodama in the top of the first, Garcia-Perreira didn’t allow another hit until Moku Kukonu’s leadoff single in the fourth.

Kamehameha scratched across a run on a two-out throwing error by Doi trying to catch a runner stealing second.

MPI responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning, including one on a double steal in which Brent Sakurai leaped over the tag of Kukonu at the plate to push the Owls’ lead to 5-1.

Sakurai got the wind knocked out of him, but stayed in the game.

"(The early lead) helps because you can be more aggressive," Muramaru said.

Garcia-Perreira took a four-run lead to the seventh and allowed a leadoff double to Joe Yokoi.

Ali’i Pedrina followed with a single to put runners at the corners and Kodama lifted a sacrifice fly near the wall in right.

Alika McGuire followed with a hard chopper to shortstop Quinton Collier, who hadn’t played the position all season.

He was needed after an injury knocked regular starter Isaiah Kiner Falefa out of the game and made a tough hop look routine, flipping the ball to second for the force out that kept the tying run from coming to bat.

Keenan Lum went the distance for Kamehameha, walking only one batter. Three of the five runs allowed were unearned as Kamehameha committed four errors.

The Owls (15-2) will be one of three teams up for the No. 1 seed in next week’s state tournament, joining OIA champion Kailua (14-1) and BIIF champion Waiakea (14-0).