There is always pressure when coming into a game unbeaten.

Kahuku embraced its 13-0 record and the challenge to make it 14 in a row … as well as claim its first Oahu Interscholastic Association White Division crown since 2007.

The Red Raiders rode the arm of senior right-hander Tisi Tualau and her season-high 14 strikeouts to a 5-1 win over Waipahu at Central Oahu Regional Park.

Kahuku (14-0) and Waipahu (11-2) both advance to next week’s state championships. The Marauders’ only losses this season have been to the Red Raiders.

Tualau’s sinking screwball kept Waipahu off balance all game, with six consecutive strikeouts coming in the fourth and fifth innings as she struck out the side twice.

“I’ve been working on that pitch (screwball) a lot; it’s got me through a lot of games,” said Tualau, who gave up one hit — a game-opening single to Angi Sakamoto — and walked two. “There’s a lot of people gunning for us, who want to take us down. But we’ve stayed strong as a team.

“When my team hits the ball, it takes a lot of pressure off of me. I think we were a little nervous at the beginning. Winning today will help us stay on top. We know we can do it.”

Kahuku, which had powered its way through the tournament with the long ball, played the short game well early. KaLynn Latu walked to open the bottom of the first and eventually scored on a fielder’s choice.

The Raiders upped it to 2-0 in the third when Latu again scored, this time when Taina Yamamoto’s hard single got past the left-fielder, one of four Waipahu errors.

Meanwhile, Tualau continued her mastery. She did not fall behind in the count until the fourth, with both Tammy Viliamu and Kylie Nishino drawing 2-0 counts. Both times Tualau came back with three straight strikes.

“We weren’t going to start her,” Red Raiders coach Ed Davis said of Tualau. “She had some tendinitis. So we said, if you want, go for a couple of innings and see how it works out. But my goodness, from the middle innings, she was stronger than she was at the start.”

The Red Raiders upped their margin to 3-0 in the fourth when Paige Kauhi scored on an error and Kahuku put the game out of reach on Nano Uli’s two-run homer to right.

The only trouble Tualau got in was in the sixth when walking the first two Marauder batters. The speedster Sakamoto, who stole her way to third, scored when beating out a throw home on Tali Viliamu’s deep infield popup.

Waipahu never threatened again.

“It was a great game on both sides,” Davis said. “With this caliber of ballteam, you got to take what you can get.

“This gives us tremendous confidence going into states. You would have thought the kids would have a letdown after they were 10-0, 12-0, but they kept right on going. This team just likes to play ball.”