After seeing a four-run lead stunningly wiped out in the top of the seventh inning, Roosevelt readied for its turn at bat with a quick word from coach Clay Okamura.

“They just gotta trust themselves, that’s all,” Okamura said.

The Rough Riders led Waianae 8-4 going into the final frame in Wednesday’s OIA Division I softball playoff game only to see the Seariders scratch out a run before tying the game on Kamalei-Rhandie Santiago’s two-out three-run home run.

Roosevelt refocused and Mika Emoto led off the bottom of the seventh with an infield single, advanced on a bunt and was still on second with two out. Roosevelt senior D-Dre Wright then took a strike before belting the next pitch into the left-center gap to drive in Emoto and the Rough Riders extended their season with a 9-8 win at Stevenson Middle School.

“I didn’t know if it was over (the left fielder’s) head, but I knew I got a good solid bat on it,” Wright said after driving in her second run of the game.

After surviving the one-and-done opening round, Roosevelt, the third seed out of the OIA East, will face No. 3 Mililani, the second seed in the OIA West, in a quarterfinal game today at 3 p.m. at the Trojans’ field in Central Oahu.

The winners of today’s four quarterfinals will secure state tournament berths. The losers can still play their way in through the fifth-place bracket.

Roosevelt leadoff hitter Maya Nakamura went 3-for-4, scored the game’s first run on Tyra Wallrabenstein’s triple in the bottom of the first and gave the Rough Riders a 5-4 lead with a two-out, two-run double in the fourth.

Wright looped an RBI single into shallow right field during Roosevelt’s three-run outburst in the fifth that gave pitcher Mari Foster an 8-4 cushion.

Foster escaped bases-loaded jams in the fifth and sixth innings and stranded 10 Waianae runners on base, eight in scoring position, going into the seventh.

Waianae’s first two batters reached on a walk and a single and Tyra Pai drilled a single up the middle to score Paia‘ala Wilcox-Molina. After a flyout and a foul pop up brought Roosevelt one out from a win, Santiago launched Waianae’s second home run of the game out to left field to tie it up.

Santiago’s homer was the last of Waianae’s 11 hits, which included Kayla Hensley’s leadoff homer in the third to spark a three-run rally that gave Waianae a 4-3 lead.

“They just played with a lot of heart, something we instill in them,” first-year Waianae head coach Aina Kalaola said. “They never give up, they left it all on the field and that’s all we can ask for.”

Having already rallied earlier in the game, Roosevelt had one more response ready in the bottom of the seventh.

“We just gotta keep on doing what we’re doing,” Wright said of the Rough Riders’ mind-set in the dugout, “doing what we know and what we learned from our coaches in practice and we just have to apply.”

“They all did their job,” Okamura said. “They just kept hitting the ball.”

Kamalei-Rhandie Santiago, Bailey Pittman (5), Santiago (5) and Charley Pittman. Mari Foster and Haylie Uetake. W–Foster. L–Santiago.

Leading hitters–Waianae: Santiago, 2-5, HR, 3 RBIs; Paia’ala Wilcox-Molina, 2-3, RBI; Tyra Pai, 2-4, 2B, RBI; Kayla Hensley, 2-4, HR. Roosevelt: Maya Nakamura, 3-4, 2B, 3 RBIs; Tyra Wallrabenstein, 3B, RBI; Foster, RBI; Megan Taguchi, RBI; D-Dre Wright, 2-4, 2B, 2 RBIs.