After a rainy weekend delayed Mililani’s march, the Trojans reign again in the OIA.
Mililani captured the program’s 11th OIA softball championship and sixth under coach Rose Antonio with a 3-1 win over Pearl City in the league’s Division I final Tuesday at McKinley High School.
Tuesday’s victory gave the Trojans their third title in the past four years, a run interrupted by a 6-5 loss to Kapolei in last year’s league final. The Trojans earned the OIA’s seeded berth and a first-round bye in the Division I state tournament, which opens May 3 at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
“These kids, they battled,” Antonio said. “They work hard every day and they deserve this.”
Persistent rain late last week pushed the OIA tournament’s final two rounds into Monday and Tuesday. Mililani’s seven-run outburst in the seventh inning against Roosevelt powered the Trojans into the final and they pieced together a three-run rally in the second inning on Tuesday to give Misha Carreira the lead.
Carreira went the distance, worked around five walks, struck out three and got help from her defense with inning-ending double plays to end Pearl City threats in the fifth and sixth innings.
“The defense played stellar,” Antonio said. “Double plays, that helps. Offense wins games, defense wins championships and that’s what this was.”
Pearl City ace Tyanna “Peanut Butter” Kaaialii struck out seven and walked three in a complete-game effort a night after throwing a nine-inning no-hitter in the Chargers’ 1-0 semifinal win over Campbell. She retired 15 of the last 17 batters she faced, but Mililani managed to hang on.
Mililani won the first meeting 6-1 on March 21 and Pearl City edged Mililani 8-7 on April 15 to clinch the top seed in the OIA West, which produced five of the league’s six state tournament representatives.
Mililani struck first in the third meeting between the teams after loading the bases on an error, a single and a walk to start the second inning. Maya Saneishi, the Trojans’ ninth-place batter, battled Kaaialii in a nine-pitch at-bat and her roller up the third base line was bobbled, allowing Tracie Okumura to score the game’s first run.
After a strikeout, Maya Yoshiura grounded an RBI single through the right side and Merilis Rivera was hit by a pitch to force in Mililani’s third run.
“They were disciplined. We put the ball in play, but we just had to be selective,” Antonio said.
Pearl City left the bases loaded in the bottom of the second but broke through in the fourth. Hailey-Alexis Yamaguchi lined a double to the left-center gap to lead off the inning and Kaaialii followed with a sharp single up the middle and courtesy runner Tiana Akau came around to score.
The Chargers put the tying runs on base with one out in the fifth on two infield singles, but a grounder to Yoshiura at second started an inning-ending double play and the Trojans ended the sixth with a 5-4-3 double play. Carreira gave up a two-out double in the seventh but ended the game with her third strikeout.
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At McKinley HS
>> Mililani (12-3) 030 000 0 — 3 5 1
>> Pearl City (11-3)000100 0 — 1 8 2
Misha Carreira and Markie Okamoto. Tyanna Kaaialii and Hailey-Alexis Yamaguchi. W—Carreira. L—Kaaialii.
Leading hitters—Mililani: Maya Yoshiura, RBI; Merilis Rivera, RBI; Taylor Schmerbauch, 2-3. Pearl City: Kylie Tasaki, 2B; Jaeda McFarland, 2-3; Yamaguchi, 2B; Kaaialii, 2-2.
OIA DIVISION I PLAYOFFS
Third-place game: No. 3 Campbell 8, No. 5 Roosevelt 0
At Stevenson Field
>> Campbell (12-4) 200 400 2 — 8 10 1
>> Roosevelt (11-4) 000 000 0 — 0 0 3
Danielle Cervantes and Jocelyn Alo. Mari Foster and Haylie Uetake. W—Cervantes. L—Foster.
Leading hitters—Camp: Alesia Ranches 2-2, run. Roos: none.
Fifth-place game: No. 10 Leilehua 9, Kapolei 7
At Leilehua
>> Kapolei (5-11) 013 003 0 — 7 9 1
>> Leilehua (11-5) 004 203 X — 9 11 5
Chasity McKean, Tatum Guzman (3) and Lili Kaimi. Kamryn Kamakaiwi and Gianna Araki. W—Kamakaiwi. L—McKean.
Leading hitters—Kapo: Guzman 3-3, 2 RBIs, run; Kaimi 1-4, 2b, run; Kiley Ozaki 1-4, 2b, run. Lei: Brandi Leong 3-4, 2b, 3 RBIs; Pomai Nahulu 2-4, 2 RBIs, 3 runs; Araki 2 RBIs; Mahea Calizo 2-2, 2 RBIs; Kawena Kahana-Travis 2-3, 2b, RBI.
Correction: In an earlier version of this story and in Wednesday’s print edition, Mililani infielder Tarah Aniya was misidentified as Merilis Rivera in the photo caption.
