Maryknoll's Erica Inagaki touches home plate to score a run against Pearl City. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Maryknoll's Shayna Ige gets set to make a throw to first against Pearl City. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Pearl City's Kristin Frost throws a pitch to the plate against Maryknoll. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Maryknoll's Shearyna Labasan struck out 14 batters in a no-hit performance against Pearl City. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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MANOA -- Shearyna Labasan pitched a no-hitter to stifle Pearl City, 6-0 in the opening round of the 2014 DataHouse/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I State Softball Championships at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium at the Unviersity of Hawaii at Manoa on Tuesday night.

“It was a good challenge for us and we had to stay together, then we could get through it,” said Bree Soma.

“My defense has always been backing me up and they did that today. When the ball was hit, they managed to make the play like the double out and they backed me up on offense too,” said Labasan.

Maryknoll, No. 4 in the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings will advance to the quarterfinals to face the tournament’s second seed Mililani, No. 3 in the Power Rankings, tomorrow at 7 pm.

“Defensively, they looked awfully solid, we hit it to any place and everyone knows what to do and how to do and it becomes routine. No matter what, we pride ourselves on pitching and defense. We just wait for that lucky inning where we put it all together and it’s been happening for us,” said Maryknoll coach John Uekawa.

Labasan recorded 14 strikeouts and walked three and the Maryknoll defense committed no errors. Center fielder Bree Soma went 1 for 3 with a 3 RBI triple and Tamia Hirano went 1 for 3, a run and an RBI.

“It hit me in the last inning and when the game was over,” said Labasan, on pitching a no-hitter. “I think all my pitches were working and I tried to move the pitches and the batters’ eyes and get them swinging.”

“We rely a lot of Ryna (Labasan), in practice we work hard and she works hard for us so we try to work hard for her too, we all have each others’ back,” said Soma.

“She’s responsible for the 10 or 11 of the 21 outs. She had 14 strikeouts and two putouts, and six ground balls and it’s telling you something that she’s keeping the ball down and where she wants to be,” said Uekawa, on Labasan.

The Lady Spartans broke open a defensive stalemate and scored all six runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Jarae Keliikoa recorded the first hit of the game as she singled to centerfield and Miki Takara came in as a pinch runner. Frost walked Magdadaro and Chynna Mekaru came in as a courtesy runner. Mylee Enos reached first on a error that brought in Miki Takara for the first score of the game. Mekaru scored and Shayna Ige reached first on a fielder’s choice and advanced to second on an errant throw to home. Erica Inagaki loaded the bases after she hit a single to the short stop.

“When we had the opportunity, they didn’t execute and we did and we got lucky,” said Uekawa.

“The pitcher (Frost) had us on our toes for the other innings and we knew we had to get some runs on the scoreboard and started chipping away and it worked,” said Labasan.

Tamia Hirano brought in Enos on an RBI single to centerfield to make it 3-0. Soma drove in a 3 RBI triple just inside the foul line to score Inagaki, Ige and Hirano to give the Lady Spartans a comfortable 6-0 lead with no outs.

“It felt really good, I wanted to help out my team, just stay calm out there especially since we were up on the scoreboard, it helped me stay relaxed out there and I felt my team had my back out there,” said Soma, on her 3 RBI triple.

“It took a lot of pressure off everyone on the team so I tried to shut down the batters and get those outs” said Labasan.

“It’s not the first inning, the second inning, it can happen in the fourth or fifth inning and we score in bunches so don’t worry, don’t let it get on you and we close the door. We put the lights out in the sixth and seventh innings so that was important for us,” said Uekawa.

In the first four innings, it was a pitchers' duel as Kristin Frost had five strikeouts and Labasan had nine strikeouts and yielded no hits. Frost finished with six strikeouts for the game. Labasan walked two consecutive Pearl City batters in the top of the fifth and it was the only time the Chargers got on base. 

“I think it’s really great, it gave us a of confidence to come out strong against Mililani tomorrow and we’re going to bring our best game,” said Labasan.

“I think Pearl City was peaking and we knew we had our hands full and it wasn’t going to be a cakewalk, so our thing was to do our due diligence. Bottom line, people asked me, ‘How are you going to handle Pearl City?' and all I said was we’re going to play our game and we did that today,” said Uekawa.