When Skye Ah Yat’s grounder zipped into left field, St. Francis staked its place among the best in the ILH — regardless of division.

Ah Yat’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh inning gave the Division II and seventh-ranked Saints a 6-5 win over No. 5 Maryknoll on Tuesday at Ala Wai field, clinching at least a tie for the best record in the league.

One of just two Division II teams in the ILH, the Saints set among their goals to be competitive in the ILH throughout the combined schedule, “and I’m proud we accomplished that,” coach Randy Langi said, “and now it’s a another set of goals.”

The Saints closed the regular season at 9-3 and won both meetings with Division I leader Punahou (8-3), which closes the regular season today against ‘Iolani.

“That was definitely one of our goals, to get to the top of the ILH,” said senior Sammie Ofoia, who ignited the Saints with a two-run homer on Tuesday. “Just to know that we had the talent and the hard work to get there was amazing.”

While St. Francis will now have a three-week break before playing in the Division II state tournament, Maryknoll has less than 24 hours to regroup before closing the regular season today at Kamehameha.

Maryknoll (7-4) began the week with a walk-off win over Pac-Five on Monday and rallied from a 5-0 deficit against St. Francis to force Tuesday’s dramatic conclusion. With the loss, Maryknoll needs a win and some help from ‘Iolani to catch Punahou and force a playoff for a Division I state tournament berth.

While the Spartans will play their third game in as many days, “We’ll endure,” coach John Uekawa said. “So we’ll be fine.”

St. Francis jumped ahead on senior day on Ofoia’s blast to left field in the bottom of the first inning. The Saints appeared to be in control when Kaitlyn Kalani drew a bases-loaded walk in the third and Joelle Perreira delivered a two-run single in the fourth.

Saints junior Sierrah Kupihea needed just 45 pitches to cruise through the first four innings and Ah Yat caught a drive while crashing into the fence in left field to start the fifth. But Maryknoll put runners on second and third with two out in the inning and Nohea Hee’s single through the middle cut the lead to 5-2.

The Spartans closed to within a run in the sixth with the aid of two St. Francis errors and caught the Saints when Kahilu McNicoll’s looper into shallow left fell in front of a diving Ah Yat, allowing Raynna Mekaru to score the tying run.

“I kept telling the girls one run here, one run there and before you knew it, we tied it,” Uekawa said. “But all the credit goes to St. Francis. They held it together.”

Kupihea, who struck out five and walked one in the complete-game win, stranded Maryknoll runners at second to close the sixth and seventh innings and the Saints drew three consecutive walks to start the bottom of the seventh. After a line-out to third base, Ah Yat fell behind two strikes before drilling the game-winner through the left side of the infield to end the game and start the senior day festivities in earnest.

“I was just telling myself get it done, gotta get it done,” Ah Yat said.

“We’re a scrappy team, we have big bats. … Everybody knows what we can do and we just have to come out and show it.”