Mid-Pacific finesse left-hander Payton Dixon was in control of Saint Louis’ powerful bats.

Dixon pitched a three-hitter with one walk and five strikeouts as No. 5 Mid-Pacific beat No. 1 Saint Louis 3-0 in an ILH baseball game Saturday at Central Oahu Regional Park.

Dixon threw 56 of his 81 pitches for strikes against a Saint Louis team that entered having scored 29 runs in its previous three games.

“He threw a lot of strikes today,” Mid-Pacific coach Dunn Muramaru said. “He was ahead in the count most of the way.”

Dixon retired 17 of the first 18 batters he faced, with a walk to Jacob Villacorte in the third accounting for the only base-runner.

The no-hitter was broken up on Ryder Okimoto’s two-out, bad-hop single off Owls shortstop Coen Goeas in the sixth.

“When the two-seam (fastball) is on, you have to paint it on the outside corner and work ahead in the count so you can use your other pitches,” said Dixon, who also threw a changeup and curveball.

The Crusaders had the tying run at the plate with two outs in the seventh, and Chance Kuhlmann hit a sharp grounder up the middle. Owls second baseman Coehn Nakasone made a diving stop to his backhand side, got up and fired a strike to first to end the game.

“ ‘Naks’ is my boy. He always has my back,” said Dixon, who had a four-hit victory over ‘Iolani his previous time out. “I knew he was going to make that play. I started walking toward the dugout (before the play was completed). He’s a really defensive fundamentally sound guy.”

Saint Louis knew what Dixon had to offer but just couldn’t muster any offense.

“We knew he was going to pitch today, so we were prepared for him,” Saint Louis coach George Gusman said. “He was just pounding the strike zone and we looked ill-prepared. You have to give credit to Dixon.”

The Owls have won five in a row and allowed two or fewer runs in each contest.

“It really helps our confidence because we started off the season slow, but we’ve been building it back up and now we’re on a roll, so I hope we can keep it going,” Owls designated hitter Nathaniel Wagner said.

The Crusaders (6-2-1) are still atop the ILH, with both of their losses coming against the Owls. Mid-Pacific is tied for second with Kamehameha at 6-3, ‘Iolani is fourth at 5-3-1 and Punahou is fifth at 5-4.

“Every year it’s like this. You have to win one and move on to the next one. It’s like March Madness,” Muramaru said.

Mid-Pacific manufactured its runs Saturday, with all of them coming with two outs off Villacorte, who scattered eight hits in a complete-game performance.

In the first inning, Wagner bunted in Kai Tokumaru, who courtesy ran for Noah Kubo.

“I heard my teammates in the dugout and I looked at the third baseman and saw he was back, so I decided to put it down,” Wagner said.

In the fifth, Nakasone had a one-out single, stolen second on a called strike three to Jake Comeaux and scored on Chandler Murray’s single to center to make it 2-0.

Mid-Pacific added an insurance run in the sixth on Kash Choy’s hit-and-run single to right, which scored Brayson Sarae.

“We were a little lucky. The law of averages. We weren’t getting the two-out hits (previously),” Muramaru said.

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Mid-Pacific 3, Saint Louis 0

W—Payton Dixon. L—Jacob Villacorte.

Leading Hitters—MPI: Kash Choy 2-3, RBI.