Tamia Hirano (1) and Shearyna Labasan (center) celebrate after their 5-3 victory over Iolani for the third state tournament birth of the ILH. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Iolani's Brielle Asato was 2-for-4 with a triple and 2 RBIs against Maryknoll. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Maryknoll pitcher Shearyna Labasan pitched a complete game victory over Iolani for the third state tournament birth. Labasan allowed 5 hits, 3 runs, and struck out 5 batters. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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SAND ISLAND -- No. 4 Maryknoll held off upset-minded ‘Iolani, 5-3 to clinch the Interscholastic League of Honolulu’s third state tournament berth on Thursday afternoon at Sand Island Park. After coming up short last year, the Lady Spartans broke through and they will be making their first appearance in the Datahouse Division I State Softball Championships since 2008. Maryknoll will join Mid-Pacific and Kamehameha-Kapalama to represent the ILH. ‘Iolani finishes the season at 10-6.

Maryknoll completed the season sweep of ‘Iolani as they won 10-0 on Mar. 13 and 11-0 on Apr. 14. However today, the Raiders gave the Lady Spartans all they could handle.  

“It feels wonderful. It’s refreshing for me and we always say the game we don’t want to lose is our last game. I think ‘Iolani played a tremendous game and it’s so hard to beat a team three times in a row. They pitched Yuu and came in with Garcia-Perreira and they did a number and we were lucky enough to be a winner,” said a relieved John Uekawa.

It was a defensive battle for the first three innings and neither team could get on the scoreboard.

“We were faced in a lot of situations where we had to pull through and everyone pretty much stayed focused and knew what we had to do, stayed calm and came out of it,” said Shearyna Labasan, who recorded five strikeouts.

In the bottom of the fourth, Katie Yuu walked Jerae Keli’ikoa, who then moved to second on Kasey Magdadaro’s sacrifice bunt. Mylee Enos grounded out to the short stop and Keli’ikoa advanced to third. Shayna Ige got on base on a error from Macy Uyehara and Erica Inagaki got on base due to an error from Jacy Watanabe and Keli’ikoa scored the first run of the game.

Short stop Tamia Hirano, who missed some time due to a broken jaw, hit a 2 RBI single to right field to score Ige and Inagaki to push the lead to 3-0, but Hirano was picked off at first base to end the inning.

“I told myself to get the runners in, get us going and start a rally so we can get ahead of them and play our game,” said Hirano.

“Her drive and initiative is unbelievable,” said Uekawa, on Hirano. “It puts a lot of pressure on the defense, that’s the key, our key is that we want to score first and puts a lot of pressure on the opponent.”  

“In the beginning we were hitting straight to players and the second time around we saw the ball better and we tried to hit it hard somewhere on the ground and we just kept going with that,” said Labasan.  

In the top of the fifth, Lindsay Teruya hit a single to right field and Brielle Asato hit a single to second to beat the throw. Spencer Oda got on a error from Magdadaro to load the bases. Labasan consecutively struck out Uyehara and Taylor Garcia-Perreira. She caused Cassie Ho to ground out to third to inning the inning and preventing the Raiders from tying or taking the lead.

“Coming back it was a struggle and had to find myself again. I relied on my teammates to help pick me up and I knew they were going to be there for me and so I had confidence in them,” said Hirano, after missing a couple games. “We have a strong defense, we back up our pitcher and we talk to each other and tell each other where the plays are and we have confidence to get these outs.”  

“It felt great to get out of that and we tried to stay calm and not do anything different, play for the outs and we came through,” said Labasan.

“To be a great pitcher, you have to have great defense and we pride ourselves on defense,” said Uekawa.

In the bottom of the fifth, Bree Soma hit a single to the short stop and on the next at-bat, Labasan was intentionally walked. Keli’ikoa got to first on a error from Teruya and Soma and Labasan scored to extend the lead to 5-0.

In the top of the sixth, Labasan walked Kealaulaikalani Gier and Kayla Seto came in for her. Teruya reached first and Seto moved to third on an error by Inagaki. Asato blasted a 2 RBI triple to left field to bring in Teruya and Seto to make it 5-2.

In the top of the seventh, Uyehara reached first on an error by Enos and Garcia-Perreira grounded out to the short stop. Labasan walked Ho and Uyehara went to third. Uyehara scored on Vevesi Liilii’s sacrifice to make it 5-3. Labasan walked Gier, but caused Yuu to ground out to third to end the game.

“It means a lot, Maryknoll hasn’t been to states for softball in a long time so it feels great winning and getting in there,” said Labasan, on getting to the state tournament.

“We have been working hard all season, practices—we have been practicing on the weekends, we did a couple team bondings. We have to play as a team, one family, and that if we want to get far, we have to pick each other up, rely on our coaches and trust each other and play as one,” said Hirano.

“Like all the coaches are saying, the monkey is off our back. The monkey is off our back, now we can go in and relax and have fun and go in a drive for the championship rather than press ourselves to try to win. The thing was to get into states, once we’re in states, I feel we’re peaking right now, that’s the thing for us and who’s peaking at the right time,” said Uekawa.