Mililani catcher Markie Okamoto makes a catch in foul territory against the Chargers to help the Trojans win in shutout fashion. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Mililani catcher Markie Okamoto makes a catch in foul territory against the Chargers to help the Trojans win in shutout fashion. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Led by Aubree Kim's solid pitching and Mama Rivera's timely RBI singles, No. 4 Mililani returns to the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I title game for the third year in a row after smothering No. 7 Pearl City, 6-0 at McKinley's Tiger Softball Stadium on Friday night.

"It's tough to beat a team three times in a season and it's an accomplishment to make it to our third trip back and it's difficult and Kapolei is a hot team right now," said Mililani coach Rose Antonio, who is seeking her sixth OIA title as head coach.

The defending OIA champion Trojans (11-3 overall) are seeking their eleventh overall championship and will play a red-hot No. 2 Kapolei (12-3 overall) squad, who took down top-ranked Campbell (13-1 overall), 5-4 in the earlier matchup. The Hurricanes and Trojans split the regular season series.

Mililani completed the season sweep of the Chargers having won, 12-5 and 2-1 in the regular season.

"It was close the last time we played and we had to come out strong," said Kim.

Kim threw a complete-game three-hitter to strike out nine and walked five for the win. She got off to a good start as she struck out her first two batters. From there she let her defense make the plays.

"It was well-balanced on her part and hitting her spots. That's what you have to do in this type of game and let the defense work too," said Rose Antonio.

"I think the biggest thing is to cut down on my walks, so I tried to reduce that and my defense made all the plays," said Kim.

Kristen Ishii got on base from an error and Maya Yoshiura was hit by a pitch. Merilas "Mama" Rivera hit a single to right field to bring in Ishii and the Trojans scored another run off of another error to make it, 2-0. This was the first hit the Chargers allowed in 12 innings during their run in the OIA playoffs.

"The two runs in the beginning got me going and that was exciting. We talk about scoring often and early so it was good they did that early this time," said Kim.

"When you score early, it helps the pitching and the defense and other parts of the game," said Antonio.

The Trojans were able to break open the game in the fifth inning. Togami and Ishii each singled and Yoshiura's sacrifice bunt moved both runners to third and second respectively. Rivera drove in her second run of the game with a single to shallow left center. Shannon Pascual-Stanton reached on error that led to another Mililani run and Tristan Cozo's single inside the left field foul line made it, 6-0.

"That was clutch for us and to score the runs. We haven't had that clutch hitting lately and we've been struggling lately," said Antonio.

Noel Saunders led the Chargers with two hits. Pearl City could not get further than second base all night.

"I think we tried to do too much, we let the emotion of the game get to us. Our swings did not look like what we've been seeing in the past. She (Kim) did her thing, but we didn't do ours," said Pearl City coach Chad Obara.

Tyanna Kaaialii pitched six innings and tossed three strikes. Of the six runs scored, only three were earned in the loss.

The Chargers (8-7 overall) will play the Sabers for third place.

"We have to stick to our goal to compete with every opportunity we get," said Obara.