Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Pearl City's Hope Casarez heads home after belting a home run. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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MANOA — Behind Tyanna Kaaialii and a strong opening inning, No. 6 Pearl City beat No. 5 Iolani, 8-4 in the opening round of the DataHouse/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Softball State Championships at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium on Tuesday night.

Pearl City (9-8 overall) advances to play fourth-seeded Waiakea in the quarterfinals at 2:30 at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium while Iolani (13-4 overall), who is making their first state tournament appearance since 2009, drops to play Lahainaluna at McKinley.

The Chargers' win also gives the Oahu Interscholastic Association West the opening round sweep of the state tournament.

Kaaialii pitched a complete game to throw 11 strikes and walked five. All four Iolani runs were earned.

Eight of the nine Charger batters registered a hit as they finished with 13 for the game.

"Results wise and numbers wise, yes. Contact wise, we've been doing this all year. In the regular season, a lot of balls we hit at people. Today they found the hole and things went our way," said Pearl City coach Chad Obara.

Pearl City came alive in the first inning and got four singles in a row to set the tone. Hailey-Alexis Yamaguchi drove in a two RBI single to give the Chargers an early, 2-0 lead.

"I was a bit more relaxed and confident in myself and no matter what my team had my back," said Kaaialii, on getting the lead.

"Anytime you jump to an early lead it helps out. It helps them bring them under control and it was a good thing that's what we were hoping for. Tonight it went our way," said Obara.

Kylie Tasaki's RBI single to right field brought in Darian Obara, for her second run of the game to make it, 3-0.

The Chargers blew the game open in the fifth as Kaaialii led off with a triple to left field. Anasaria Cabato's sacrifice fly scored Tiana Akau, who came in for Kaaialii. Taylor Shigeta and Hope Casarez each singled and advanced on a throwing error. Kristin Frost and Noel Saunders drove in runs to give Pearl City a commanding 7-0 lead.

Freshman pitcher Aleia Agbayani walked three and all eight Charger runs were earned.

Iolani came to life in the sixth inning after Cassie Ho led off with a solo home run to left center. Agbayani singled, Kea Gier walked, and Macy Uyehara reached on an error to load the bases. The Raiders would score two more runs off of walks as they trailed, 7-3. Iolani loaded the bases again, but Kaaialii struck out Leila Anoina and Kennedi Lopes grounded out to second to end the inning.

"I was feeling the nerves and coach Chad said the juices were flowing. I knew my team had my back and I had the confidence in myself because they had the confidence in me. A lot of my teammates would motivate me during timeouts," said Kaaialii.

"PB and the defense held it together. They were able to keep it together and they recognized each other when things were going south, that's why they were calling timeouts and talking to each other," said Obara.

When asked if they were going to make a pitching change, the Pearl City staff was monitoring the situation if it unraveled further.

"If it got to that point, I was going to have to. Maybe two or three batters down the line. We got her warm and sent her back out there, if it got to that point, she would've come in," added Obara, on possibly inserting Kristin Frost on the mound.

Casarez added a solo home run in the seventh to help put it away for the Chargers. Ho added her second solo home run in the bottom of the seventh, but Kaaialii struck out two of the three batters to end the game.