Mililani's Kaimana Souza-Paaluhi is greeted by a teammate after hitting a home run in the fourth inning in a win over Pearl City. Tyler Guieb | SL

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MANOA - Kaimana Souza-Paaluhi's booming home run ignited the offense that backed Koa Eastlack's three-hitter and No. 2 Mililani downed Pearl City, 3-1, to advance to Thursday's quarterfinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation Division I state baseball tournament.

The Trojans (13-3) will meet third-seeded Baldwin at 1 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium. The Chargers (7-6) will face Kailua in a 9 a.m. consolation semifinal at Hans L'Orange Park.

Mililani avenged a 4-3 regular-season loss to Pearl City that eventually cost it the top seed for the Oahu Interscholastic Association Western Division. Eastlake went six innings in that game, but was left with a no-decision. This time, he was the deciding factor.

"He's a bulldog out there," Mililani coach Mark Hirayama said. ‘Nothing really fazes him too much. He just goes out and gives us good outings and gives us a chance to compete."

The left-handed Eastlack kept the Chargers off-balanced all night. Pearl City did not have a runner reach third until the sixth inning. The Chargers eventually scored in the seventh when for only the second time in the game they got the lead-off batter aboard when Shaye Higa doubled and his courtesy runner Ryne Tokunaga eventually scored on a ground out.

"He throws a lot of strikes," Pearl City coach Gavin Concepcion said of Eastlack. "He's a little deceptive from the left side. Early in the game, we were chasing breaking balls he didn't prove he could throw for a strike. He got a little more confident and was able to locate later in the game…He forced us to put the ball in play and unfortunately, we didn't do it enough times."

Eastlake walked three and struck out eight in the complete-game effort. The Chargers threatened in the sixth when Sanyo Lo reached first on a passed ball on a swinging third strike and an out later, took third on Dane Kaneshiro's flare doubled behind first base. But Eastlack struck out Brent Clymer to end the threat.

"One of the things we did not do well this season was get that two-out hit, that clutch hit," Concepcion said. "Credit to Koa. he got tougher, especially in that sixth inning with a lefty up. He got confident with that breaking ball. He threw three sliders in a row and got that strikeout."

Pearl City starter Trenton Darley was matching Eastlake through three innings. But he fell behind 2-0 to the left-handed hitting Souza-Paaluhi, who hammered an inside fastball over the right-field fence to break the scoreless deadlock.

"Off the bat, I knew I hit it solid, but I wasn't too sure," Souza said of his first high-school homer. "Since this was my first home run, it was a great feeling; I didn't know what to do as I was running around the bases…I was shocked."

"It was a confidence-booster for the whole team," Eastlack said of the homer.

Added Hirayama: "We just needed that spark. That was huge. That was one of the hardest balls I've seen hit in a while."

Sean Sonognini followed with a single to center and his courtesy runner Blaine Demello took second on a wild pitch when Ty De Sa struck out. Demello was caught leaning the wrong way on Darley's pick-off attempt, but Darley's throw was wide, allowing Demello to take third, where he scored on a wild pitch when Justice Nakagawa reached first on a swinging third strike.

"If we get that play, we get out of the inning," Concepcion said of the pick-off error. "We compound that with a swinging third strike that scores a run."

After Nakagawa was caught stealing second, Adam Connell walked and went to third on Jarrin Morikawa's double. But Darley got CJ Ibara to foul out to first to strand the runners in scoring position.

The Trojans scored in the sixth when Connell walked with two out, stole second and scored on Morikawa's single.

"Anybody will tell, lead-off walks, two-out walks, they'll come back to bite you," Concepcion said. "It did. If that game was 2-0 coming into that last inning, it would've given us a better chance to get back into the game, so that third run kind of hurt us."