Maiah Motta fuels Kamehameha in the sixth inning with a lead-off home run. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Freshman Reese Mokuau digs deep to pitch Kamehameha to a victory in her first complete game. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Maiah Motta fuels Kamehameha in the sixth inning with a lead-off home run. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Freshman Reese Mokuau digs deep to pitch Kamehameha to a victory in her first complete game. Greg Yamamoto | SL

View image 2 of 2

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MANOA — The Warriors are moving on to the semifinals of the DataHouse/HHSAA Division I state tournament — the Kamehameha Warriors, that is.

Fifth-ranked Kamehameha broke a tied ballgame with an eight-hit six-run sixth inning to romp Waiakea, 9-3, in Thursday afternoon's quarterfinal matchup at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up will play Oahu Interscholastic League champion Mililani at 7 p.m. Friday night with a chance to advance to the D1 title game.

For its second game of the tournament, Kamehameha turned to freshman Reese Mokuau for pitching duties in the circle.

The 5-foot-8 pitcher has split time with senior Rayla Jacobs-Kea, who has dealt with nagging injuries throughout the regular season. Jacobs-Kea started the first game of the state tournament to pitch the Warriors to a 2-1 Wednesday night victory over Roosevelt.

The win over Waiakea gives Mokuau her fifth of the season and the first complete game outing in her young career.

"It feels great but I don't want to get ahead of myself so I'm just going to cherish it right now," Mokuau said.

As a state tournament debut, Mokuau hit Waiakea lead-off batter and starting pitcher Halee Sweat for a free base.

"In the first inning when I was having trouble, I was just freaking out," Mokuau said, who was able to induce a line drive double play from the next batter. "I had to calm myself down and just get three outs."

Mokuau settled in but ran into trouble in the third inning after giving up a bases-clearing three-RBI triple to the right field corner from Skylar Thomas.

After getting a run back in the fourth inning to tie it 3-3, the Kapalama kids opened it up in the sixth starting with Maiah Motta's lead-off slam over the leftfield wall. RBIs from Tausani Tavale, Dallas Millwood, Dee Castillo-Hopu and Motta (again) brought Kamehameha ahead, 9-3, for what would be the final arithmetic.

Mokuau finished out the game and doubled her season strikeout total with a career-high 12 batters sat down.

"My outside was working very well. They were lifting their heads so it was easier to pitch it down and they were swinging at my rise," Mokuau said.

On the other side, 15 hits was the most Waiakea's Sweat had given up all year.

Motta finished 3 for 3 with two RBIs and a run scored. Tavale pitched in a 3-for-5 day at the plate (one RBI, one run) while Millwood contributed a 3-for-4 outing (one RBI, one run, one walk).

Waiakea managed three hits with Thomas' triple her only hit of the day, going 1 for 1 with two walks.

The Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Waiakea will play Maui Friday at noon at McKinley High School.