Jake Tsukada’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted No. 4 Punahou over No. 2 ‘Iolani, 5-4, on Thursday afternoon at Goeas Field.

Punahou is now 9-1 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu and has some breathing room in the standings. ‘Iolani, which led the ILH one week ago, is now in third place at 8-3, trailing Punahou and Saint Louis (9-2). It is the third loss in a row for the Raiders, and the last two were 10-inning battles.

“Today was a result of proper preparation. Courage in extreme pressure, and ‘Iolani did the same,” Punahou coach Keenan Sue said.

The 10th frame was epic. With the game tied at 4 and one out in the top of the inning, the Raiders’ Tate Shimao singled and advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw by Matt McConnell. After McConnell struck out Blake Hiraki, Taner Aranaydo singled to center, where Koa Eldredge came up with the ball and fired a strike to catcher Matt Nishimura.

Shimao leaped over Nishimura’s glove, but couldn’t touch home plate and was tagged out by Nishimura, who could hear his bench hollering to tag the baserunner.

Things got perky for a moment after the bang-bang play when Nishimura yelled at Shimao, and both benches emptied. One Punahou player not in full uniform sprinted to within 15 feet of home plate, but both sides cleared out.

The home plate umpire, busy sweeping home plate clean while the two sides exchanged pleasantries, did not eject any players.

Tsukada then led off the bottom of the 10th and didn’t hesitate to go after Jadon Arakaki’s first pitch.

“I was looking fastball. I’m not a power hitter, so I’m pretty happy right now. I wasn’t watching the ball. I was running hard, trying to get to second or third,” Tsukada said.

The ball took off and soared near the right-field line, well beyond the 325-foot sign at the fence. On coach’s orders, the Buffanblu refrained from celebrating until Tsukada returned to the dugout.

McConnell, pitching for the second time in three days out of the bullpen, was clutch with 5 2/3 innings, allowing just one run on five hits. He fanned seven Raiders and walked two, and never lost his composure after giving up a game-tying homer to Shane Sasaki in the seventh.

“Matt works a lot on getting up there and competing. It takes a lot of character and heart to do that,” Sue said. “I’m so proud of him. (Starter) Landon (Carter) did great, too.”

Sasaki had another lights-out performance. With two outs in the top of the seventh, the senior belted a game-tying solo home run to right center to make it 4-all.

In the bottom of the ninth, Punahou had a runner at third base with one out when Cody Hirano sent a fly ball to fairly deep center field, but Nishimura didn’t bother testing the arm of Sasaki, who fired a bullet on the fly to catcher Yonamine.

“It’s just another day in the ILH. It’s competitive. It’s fun,” ‘Iolani coach Kurt Miyahira said. “It’s an honor to play in this league. Things didn’t go our way these past few games, but we’ll be fine. We’ll keep grinding. Every storm runs out of rain.”