The Mililani softball team picked up a tale of two victories Friday.
One was a nail-biter that avenged the Trojans’ lone loss of the season, the other was a rout that gave them their fourth state title.
Sunni Kahanu and Makayla Pagampao homered during a seven-run fourth inning as No. 1 seed Mililani routed No. 2 Kamehameha 14-1 in five innings in the final of the DataHouse/HHSAA Division I Championship at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
“The team played great this last game, last day of the tournament, the championship,” Mililani coach Rose Antonio said. “They played awesome, a well-balanced game all the way around.”
Mililani, the OIA champion, won its first state championship since 2014. Antonio led the Trojans to their previous two crowns (2009 was the other).
“It’s the 10-year anniversary and it feels great. Back to Mililani, the koa head,” said Antonio, who said this was her best team yet.
Kahanu added a grand slam in a six-run fifth inning for the Trojans, who had 12 hits.
“I fouled off a couple pitches and I just saw the ball,” Kahanu said.
Mililani freshman left-hander Hinano Bautista pitched a four-hitter with no strikeouts. She recorded 13 ground-ball outs.
“She played really well tonight. This was her best game. My team, this was their best game of the tournament,” Antonio said.
The Trojans and Warriors both had to win semifinal games earlier Friday after rain forced the cancellation of all games Thursday.
Mililani edged Campbell 3-2, and Kamehameha routed Baldwin 14-1 in five innings. The Trojans’ only loss of the season was an 11-9 setback to the Sabers on March 16.
“The loss is actually good for you sometimes,” Antonio said. “You don’t want to go through the whole season and you lose the last game of the season. It was the best for us we lost that game.”
Kamehameha, the ILH champion, was appearing in its second consecutive state final. The Warriors lost to Campbell in last season’s title game.
“We’re going to set our bar pretty high and we’re just going to keep planning on coming back until we get one or a couple,” Kamehameha coach Mark Lyman said.
The Warriors nearly scored in the bottom of the first when Trojans center fielder Kahanu threw out Mua Williams, who was trying to score from second on a two-out hit by Marley Espiau.
“After that throw, I really felt like our team had all of our energy up,” Kahanu said.
The Trojans (17-1) went up 1-0 in the second when Kamryn Aoki was hit by a pitch from freshman Peahi Grilho-Armitage with two outs and the bases loaded on walks.
The Warriors (14-6) nearly plated two runs in the third, but Williams’ hard grounder was ruled just wide of third base with two runners in scoring position.
“It was fair. It was fair. Go back and watch the replay. It was fair,” Lyman said. “It was huge. Momentum can swing just like that. In a game like this with two very good teams, momentum can swing on the smallest, little things here and there.”
Williams wound up hitting a fielder’s choice ground out to shortstop, which scored Nikki Chong to tie it at 1-1.
The Trojans took an 8-1 advantage in the fourth on Kahanu’s lead-off homer to left, Kaui Garcia’s two-run single off the second baseman’s glove, Kolbi Kochi’s fielder’s choice groundout to second and Pagampao’s three-run blast to center.
“I was trying to stay relaxed and do everything I could,” Pagampao said.
Jordyn Blackstad replaced Grilho-Armitage on the mound for the Warriors after the homer. Four of the seven runs in the inning were unearned.
In the Trojans’ six-run fifth, Kochi hit a sacrifice fly and Ori Mailo had an RBI single before Kahanu’s grand slam to left.
The Warriors’ most lopsided loss coming into the game had been five runs.