Leilehua’s dominant return to the state final has come without much drama.
For the second straight game, the defending state champion Mules put up eight runs in the first inning and knocked out a league champion with a 12-4 win over Punahou on Friday night at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
Tonight’s championship game in Division I in the Datahouse/HHSAA Softball State Championships will include a Mules team that has won seven in a row in the tournament and scored at least 10 runs in all seven of those wins.
They had never won a state softball title until last season.
“The championship is surreal. We’re not very fortunate like Campbell and Mililani, where you have it (a lot),” Leilehua coach Wendell Au said. “To win it is one thing. As far as thinking it was really heavy now, this team is a team and they are there for each other.”
The Mules’ latest offensive surge included hitting for the cycle in home runs in less than two innings.
Alana Jarra-Parker, Kawena Kahana-Travis and Gianna Araki all hit homers to start the game for Leilehua (12-6), which won a rematch of last year’s state final against the ILH champion Buffanblu (17-4).
Jarra-Parker’s three-run shot was her second in as many days and Kahana-Travis, who hadn’t homered all season until hitting two in her final two at-bats against the Lunas, made it three in a row with a grand slam out to left for a 7-0 lead.
Araki’s blast made it 8-0 and Lovey Kepaa completed the cycle of homers with a two-run shot with one out in the second inning for a 10-2 lead.
Leilehua has scored 22 runs in the first inning in three games in the tournament.
“That eight-run first was a tough one to come back at,” Punahou coach David “Boy” Eldredge said. “Going into this I even said to our players, we know they are going to hit a couple out, we’ve just go to make sure we reduce the runners on base when they do do that and sure enough they go three-run and (grand slam) right off the bat.”
The Mules didn’t just hit the ball but played a little defense as well. Leilehua erased D’Asha Saiki’s leadoff single in the third inning when Kahana-Travis fielded a hit off the wall and threw out Saiki trying to stretch it into a double on a nice tag from Kepaa covering the bag. Outfielder Mikayla Pinera ended the inning with a shoe-string catch sprinting into shallow center to rob the Buffanblu of another hit.
“I had a great defense behind me and I had an amazing offense to back me up all the way, so there was no doubt in my mind about this game,” senior Alyssa Abe said.
Abe, who has recorded all but four outs on the mound for the Mules so far in the tournament, held Punahou to its lowest run total in its past five games.
“Hats off to her. She has a lion’s heart and that’s all I can ask for,” Au said. “To think you’re going to strike out plenty people is rough, but as long as the pitches I call are there and it’s in the location we just have to play defense after that and she had some good teammates making some really nice plays out there in the field.”
‘Iolani 11, Baldwin 8
Freshman Allie Capello hit a two-run homer and senior Aleia Agbayani scored four runs to lead the Raiders (18-5) to their first appearance in the state softball final since they won it all in 2000.
‘Iolani will play Leilehua in a matchup of the two highest-scoring teams in the state tournament. ‘Iolani has scored 11 runs in each of its three wins while the defending state champion Mules have scored 44 runs in three games.
Baldwin starting pitcher Aliya Harmon had allowed only two runs in complete-game wins over Maryknoll and No. 1 seed Campbell to reach the semifinals, but was tagged for four runs – one earned — in the first inning.
She was replaced on the mound to start the second inning and didn’t hit in the rest of the game, but came back to pitch in the bottom of the sixth.
Freshman LB Kahahawai-Kekona had three hits to give her eight in three days for the Bears (11-7) and Dallas Castillo hit the tournament’s third grand slam when she went deep in the top of the fifth inning to cut ’Iolani’s lead to 9-7.
Freshman Ailana Agbayani took over for her sister, Aleia, after Castillo’s slam and got eight consecutive outs before Castillo’s second homer of the game made it 11-8 with two outs in the seventh. After a hit batter, Agbayani got Kahahawai-Kekona to pop out to shallow right.
Division II
St. Francis 7, Kamehameha-Hawaii 1
The Saints jumped on the Warriors for three runs in the first inning and never looked back in a win over the Warriors at Kahului, Maui.
Leadoff hitter Aulani Garcia led the way with three hits for St. Francis, and Kawena Kalani, Kaena Keliinoi, Shaylann Marie Grace and Jordyn Lono all had two. The first five hitters in St. Francis’ order combined for 11 of the team’s 13 hits and drove in all seven runs.
Sierra Kupihea allowed only four hits in the circle for St. Francis, striking out 11 batters and walking only one in the complete game.
Kaulawena Martin led Kamehameha-Hawaii with two hits and pitcher Brooke Baptiste drove in the lone run. The Saints beat the Warriors 10-0 in last year’s Division II final and have won six state tournament games in a row and have not scored fewer than seven runs in any game during the streak.
Kohala 6, Waialua 5
Laila Carvalho went 4-for-4 with three runs scored as the Cowgirls survived a scare from the Bulldogs to reach the state final for the first time.
Carvalho is 8-for-9 in her two games in the state tournament and had half of her team’s hits against Waialua.
Harley Yamasaki and Leiana Carvalho drove in two runs apiece for the Cowgirls, who got a complete game in the circle from Mikayla Kekoa. Kekoa scattered four hits, walked two and worked out of trouble in the fifth inning when Waialua scored five runs. Haven Guerrero drove in two runs and closed out the game in the circle, allowing one run in three innings.
