Brian Bautista | SL

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MANOA - If there's a will, the Mililani softball team will hit it.

The top-ranked Trojans seemingly homered at will to hold off relentless and second-ranked Maryknoll, 10-7, to repeat as DataHouse Division I state softball champions Friday night at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

It was the school's fifth overall title and fourth under coach Rose Antonio. Mililani is the first repeat champion since Campbell won in 2015-2017. The 15-1 Trojans' only loss this season was against Campbell. In fact, the OIA West has won eight of the past 10 titles, dating to 2014 (2020 and 2021 tournaments were canceled because of COVID.)

Mililani's power goes top down. Lead-off hitter Kahiau Aina hammered a three-run shot to left in a four-run second inning that started with the left-handed hitting Hinano Bautista hammering a shot to right.

The two homers gave Mililani a 4-1 lead.

All this materialized after Maryknoll had to scratch for the first run of the game with a single, walk, and an RBI single from Palehua Silva that gave the Spartans a short-lived 1-0 lead.

The Spartans chipped away at their deficit in the third, when Mililani's defense, which put on a fielding clinic the night before, showed it was human with two errors leading to a pair of unearned runs.

But the Trojans' offense flipped the switch as easily as Ori Mailo flipped her bat after leading off the bottom of the third with a towering drive to center off the netting. She said she was warned by the umpires about her bat flip that if she did it again, she would be ejected in what appeared to be the last game of her high school career.

The junior slugger, who played her freshman season at Waianae, said she plans to graduate in December to enroll in the spring at Oklahoma, where she made an oral commitment last fall for the renowned Sooners' program.

"I feel that it's a head start if I go up early," said Mailo, who will follow the footsteps of Maryknoll alumnus Nelly McEnroe-Marinas, who also hails from Waianae and was part of the Spartans' 2022 state title team. "And knowing softball is what I really want to do, I want to take advantage of the opportunities I'm going to get up there."

Mailo and Bautista bat in the heart of the Trojans' order, so they're expected to go deep. But Mililani's lineup, described as stacked by opposing coaches, has pop at the bottom of the order. No. 9 hitter, senior catcher Kodie Ancheta added insurance with a third-inning grand slam to center to extend the Trojan's lead to 9-3.

"It felt really good off the bat," said Ancheta, who signed with Lewis & Clark in Oregon. "At first, I didn't know if it went over the fence because I was so excited. I was excited to put the ball in play and move the runners, but once I saw it went over the fence and my teammates ran out (of the dugout), I knew."

The Trojans, who hammered Punahou, 19-5 in Thursday's semifinals and mercy-ruled opponents seven other times, needed all the runs they could gather because the Spartans.

Maryknoll showed its muscle in the fifth on Silva's booming homer to left to pull to 9-4.

The Spartans prolonged the Trojans' impending celebration when they chipped away at Bautista. Sheyzhelle Iokia led off with a flare single to left. An out later, a wild pitch sent Iokia to third, where she scored on Cruz's single to left-center to make it 9-5. Kaiya Miller grounded to first baseman Emma Parker, who fired to second to nail the lead runner. But Karley Sapolu walked to bring up Kailee Gattu, who grounded into two comebackers to Bautista in her two previous at-bats and was called out on strikes in her first at-bat. Gattu, who had four hits the whole season entering the tournament, doubled to center to drive in a run to pull Maryknoll to 9-6. No. 9 hitter Ciana Kamisato grounded a single to center to score Sapolu to pull to 9-7 and bring the tying run to the plate in lead-off hitter Reyni Hiraoka, a .368 hitter. Bautista was pulled after 6 2/3 innings, charged with seven runs (five earned) on eight hits and seven walks with three strikeouts. Taylor Adriano was brought in and she retired Hiraoka on three pitches, getting her to pop out to first baseman Parker to end the game after nearly three hours.

The Trojans graduate only four players, counting Mailo, so Mililani's future looks brighter.

"It's really emotional, but really excited about moving on to the next chapter," said senior center fielder Makanalei Watkins-Villegas, who will continue playing at UH-Hilo next year. "I'm really excited to see these young kids, with all their talent, for the next years."

Meanwhile, Maryknoll coach John Uekawa could not have been more proud of his young squad, which had to win the ILH's double-elimination tournament and a winner-take-all playoff with regular season champion Punahou to claim the league's seeded berth.

"It's just been an amazing run for all of the young ladies," he said. "The bottom line to it all is that where we started to where ended, they built themselves to be champions. To win that ILH (title) was practically unheard of and coming to the state finals, I mean, it's just a gift. We're just sorry we couldn't pull it through at the end. Miillani is a very good team."

With the win, Trojans' coach Antonio improved her state tournament record to 38-18, but is still five shy of all-time leader, Kailua's Bernard Victor at 43-19.