Every time Jaraad Salas sees his old Hui teammates, he gets so much better.

The Moanalua pitcher played with several of Castle’s players a couple years back on that Hui squad that played in Las Vegas.

Earlier this season he lost a close 4-3 game against the Knights. On Thursday, he baffled them, permitting just one run on three hits in 52/3 innings as Na Menehune went on to an 11-1 mercy-rule win in six frames over No. 6 Castle at Moanalua’s field.

Moanalua is now 5-3, with those losses coming by a total margin of four runs.

"It’s a good win for this team," coach Scott Yamada said. "We can play with the best of them. Castle’s a great team, well coached. We just got lucky today. Jaraad is a senior and he threw well. I’m happy for him. He worked hard in the offseason, but now it’s paying off."

The win streak is now at three.

"This brings our confidence up knowing we can take out a first-place team, to keep hitting and scoring runs," said Salas, a 5-foot-11 senior. "Our bats are coming alive, plus our defense, it’s perfect timing because we’re getting ready for the playoffs."

Salas is also Moanalua’s cleanup hitter and was 1-for-3 with a double, scoring two runs.

"We’ve been hitting a lot during spring break. We kept hitting consistently, making more contact, and that’s all our coaches kept stressing to us," he said.

It was Castle’s first loss in OIA Red play after seven wins. Salas’ counterpart, Christian Kapeliela, seemed to struggle with his breaking ball in the first three innings as the home team took a 4-0 lead. But the 6-foot senior said it was more about pitch choices than anything else.

"The first few innings, I try and use as little pitches as I can," Kapeliela said. "The middle innings is when I go to more cutters."

The perfect run came to an end, but coach Rocky Fraticelli believes the even-keeled Knights will respond well in today’s battle with Roosevelt. Castle landed in the Star-Advertiser Top 10 for the first time this week.

"This will tell us how they respond after getting so-called respect. Roosevelt is a hot team right now," said Fraticelli, in his second season as baseball coach.

Moanalua got the edge early and never let up, scoring twice in the first inning. Kai Tachino doubled to left, his high fly twirling away and carrying deep. He came home on a groundout by Mark Kuga, and Nick Enrico’s single to center scored another.

In the second, Enrico singled, stole second and scored on a throwing error by Castle third baseman Dane Kamalu.

Salas led off the third with a double to left, and courtesy runner Casey Isa came home on a single by Enrico, who finished the day 4-for-4.

Moanalua scored a combined six runs in the fifth and sixth innings to end the game on the 10-run mercy rule.

Fraticelli was impressed with Salas.

"Coach (Sam) Kakazu mentioned Salas pitched the first game against us. This time, we really didn’t hit. I’m pretty sure he really wanted to pitch against us," Fraticelli said. "He’s a bulldog."