Punahou's Krystin Wong connects with a pitch for a home run against Iolani. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Nicole Nishizawa drove in Elyse Nakamoto to score the winning run off a fielder's choice to lift Punahou (1-0) past Iolani (0-1), 5-4 in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu opener for both teams at Punahou on a breezy Saturday afternoon.

"The thing I'm happy about is this season in the preseason and today, they seem to have resiliency and they believed they were going to win, even if they are not winning," said Punahou coach Bobby Makahilahila.

In the bottom of the seventh with the game tied at 4, Nishizawa reached first on a fielder's choice, as the Raiders tagged out Sarah Sumida at second, but Kea Gier could not handle the throw to complete the double play to tag out Nishizawa which allowed Nakamoto to score the winning run.

"My team had my back the whole game and I wanted to get the ball into play to make something happened. That was a lucky break by us," said Nishizawa, a senior pitcher, on the hit.

"On the play, they were trying to turn a double and the first baseman thought she had the ball in the glove, but it hit the front and rolled away. Elyse was coming home from second," said Makahilahila.

The winning-run did not come without a little controversy. Bailey Akimseu came in to hit for Nakamoto, and managed to hit a double to left field. However, there was a discussion that Akimseu wasn't on the hitting line up roster and Punahou was issued a warning. Nakamoto came back in to replace Akimseu.

"She's on our official roster, but federation rules state it's a correctable error and what they did was add her to the lineup," said Makahilahila.

Punahou found some rhythm early offensively to bang out seven hits for the game.

Krystin Wong blasted a home run over the left field fence in the second inning to put Punahou on the scoreboard first. Jessica Shimoda reached second on an error and Heaven Wong added another run to put the Buffanblu up, 2-0.

"We were hitting it, but were hitting it right at them. We were making contact," said Makahilahila.

In the fourth, Nishizawa singled to center and Kawailana Mielke came in as a courtesy runner. Kenndi Lopes walked Wong and Fujita was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Shimoda hit a 2RBI double to score Wong and Mielke to give Punahou a 4-0 lead.

"I think the team energy lifted me and helped me get that double," said Shimoda. "Our team has been working hard in practice and we had a lot of energy on the bench."

"Punahou hit the ball, they earned this win today. They hit the ball when they needed to and they executed one run better than we did today, credit to them," said Iolani coach Corey Okamura.

The bats came alive as Iolani rallied in the sixth inning. Leila Anoina started things off by hitting a double to left/center field. Spencer Oda sacrifice bunt moved Anoina who eventually scored off an error. Macy Uyehara hit a single and Spencer Oda moved to third and Gier hit a 2RBI single to score Uyehara and Oda. Ashlyn Okamoto hit an RBI single to bring in Kellie Okamura to tie the game at 4.

"We started out a little flat, but this is a young team and it took them a couple innings, I'm proud of them they put together a rally in the sixth inning," said Okamura.

"We had to dig deep and because when we were in Kauai and we were tied twice and we knew we had it in us," said Nishizawa, who had five strikeouts and allowed one earned run.

Iolani plays Sacred Hearts at Ala Wai Field on Wednesday, Mar. 11 at 4 p.m., while Punahou hosts Maryknoll on Thursday, Mar. 12 at 4:30 p.m. Both teams will play again at Ala Wai on Apr. 4.

"It's our first game and Punahou is always a tough game. Our kids did a lot of good things today—our young pitcher (Kennedi Lopes) pitched a good game and our catcher (Cassie Ho) called a good game. Other than the outcome, I'm pleased how we played today," said Okamura.

"I think we proved to ourselves that we can come back through adversity and there are things we need to work on going into the season," said Nishizawa.