With the season on the line, Maryknoll softball coach John Uekawa wasn’t looking for anything extra out of the Spartans on Tuesday.

“I told the girls I’m not asking for them to have the best game ever. I’m not telling them to try super hard,” Uekawa said. “I just want them to be who they are.”

That proved to be more than enough.

The seventh-ranked Spartans pounded out 13 hits and captured the ILH tournament title, a spot in the Division I state tournament and a shot at defending their league crown with a resounding 15-2 win over No. 9 ‘Iolani at Sand Island Park.

After clinching the ILH’s second state tournament berth, Maryknoll will next face No. 4 Punahou — which won the regular-season title — for the overall ILH championship on Thursday at the Buffanblu’s field.

“We have another goal,” Uekawa said. “We don’t want to be happy just making states.”

Maryknoll and ‘Iolani advanced to the tournament final with dramatic comebacks last Thursday and the Spartans closed out a walk-off win for the second straight game — albeit with far less drama this time.

The Spartans rallied from a six-run deficit in the final two innings to stun Kamehameha in a 12-11 win on Kiani Arcayena’s game-winning RBI single in the semifinals, and jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning on Tuesday. They strung together three consecutive RBI singles in a five-run fourth and finished the game in the sixth on freshman Aloha Akaka’s grand slam.

“From one though nine everybody hit the ball really hard,” Uekawa said.

Senior Kahilu McNicoll got the start in the circle and contributed to her cause by driving in two runs in a 3-for-4 afternoon at the plate.

“Before the game we talked about her goal, which was to help make it easy for the offense, and that we always have her back on defense,” said catcher Baylie Kahele, who went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs.

Kahele helped ignite the Maryknoll offense with a drive to the right-center gap with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second. The ball fell in when the ‘Iolani outfielders collided and Nohea Hee and Logan Carlos came around to score.

McNicoll struck out four over the first two innings before ‘Iolani managed to scratch out two runs in the third when Aleia Agbayani delivered an RBI single and Rylee Nishimoto scored on a wild pitch to close the gap to 4-2.

“I knew the offense would help me out and we’d definitely get on base and get the runs back, so it wasn’t really a bother to me,” McNicoll said.

The Maryknoll offense responded in the fourth with Sydney Kamakaiwi, Mahalo Akaka and McNicoll driving in runs with two-out singles.

McNicoll kept the Raiders from drawing any closer and Akaka struck out three in 1 1/3 innings of relief.

Maryknoll loaded the bases in the sixth and scored on an error and McNicoll’s RBI single. Akaka, the ninth hitter in the Spartans’ order, then launched a blast to left field to bring the 10-run rule into effect.

“It felt good coming back in from struggling,” she said, “because I knew what I had to work on and they helped me out.”

Agbayani, ‘Iolani’s starting pitcher, survived a scare in the bottom of the first when Nohea Hee’s line drive smacked off her glove and glanced off her face, leaving her with a purple welt next to her left eye. The junior, whose seventh-inning homer gave the Raiders a 4-3 win over Punahou last week, went 2-for-3 with a double as ‘Iolani closed its season at 8-7.

“We did lose a lot of games in the beginning and fought our way back through to get to this point,” Agbayani said, “so I’m really proud of our team.”