Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
Mules to face undefeated Sabers in OIA D1 final


 



KAKAAKO — The Leilehua softball team won its first state championship last season. Now it has its eyes set on another milestone.

The Mules (9-5), ranked fourth in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, will try for its first league crown in program history when it takes on defending champion Campbell (14-0) in the title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I tournament Saturday night.

First pitch is scheduled for approximately 7:30 p.m. at McKinley Tiger Stadium and will follow the D2 final between Waialua (8-3) and Radford (7-5) at 5 p.m.

The top-ranked Sabers are seeking their seventh OIA championship. They are 5-3 in title games (their first league crown was determined by best record) and have won three OIA titles under coach Michael "Shag" Hermosura.

Leilehua is 0-4 in OIA champion games. Its last appearance in the league final was in 2006, when it lost to Kailua, 6-0.

"Leilehua is really tough. They came from behind again," Hermosura said of the Mules erasing a six-run deficit in a 12-8 semifinal win over No. 5 Waianae Friday night. "They'll swing the bat. They're a good team. Good coaches over there. …We have to be together on defense and hit as well as the other team."

The Sabers used a six-run fourth inning to break open a tied game on their way to a 9-3 win over East second-seeded Kaiser in the late semifinal at McKinley Friday night.

"Campbell is that championship-culture type of product," Leilehua coach Wendell Au said. "I mean, there's not a point in any time that they think they''re gonna lose a game and they'll play every inning to get one run, to get one run — they're gonna produce — so that's the program I want my program to be like; Just have that sense of ‘you can.'"

This will be the 11th time an OIA title game featured an all-Western Division matchup.

CJ Caraang | SL

No. 1 CAMPBELL 9, KAISER 3
The top-ranked Sabers sent nine batters to the plate in a six-run fourth inning to advance to the OIA title game for the second consecutive year.

Campbell (14-0) capitalized on four Kaiser errors in the inning. With the game tied at 1, the go-ahead run scored after Caisha Nunes led off with a walk, took second on a passed ball and scored when Jayda Favela reached on shortstop Shea Higa's two-base fielding error. After Sanoe Samante walked, Liana Nagamine's sacrifice put the runners in scoring position to set up Michaela Fonoti's two-run double to center. Fonoti took third on center fielder Lauryn Wee's throwing error to the infield. Hoku Pacheco reached first on pitcher Primrose Aholelei's throwing error to first on a squeeze play that scored Fonoti. Pacheco, who took second on the error, scored on Seaerra Fuentes-Arellano's single.

Alesia Ranches' single moved Fuentes-Arellano to third to put runners at the corners. Ranches stole second, as Fuentes-Arellano held third. But on the catcher's return throw to the pitcher, Primrose Aholelei dropped the ball, allowing Fuentes-Arellano to score. The inning came to an end when Ranches was caught stealing third.

"We're getting better in our execution," Campbell coach Shag Hermosura said. "We missed a few executions. I talked to them and they came back and they did (execute later). Overall, Nadia (Delzer) threw a better game than she did the other day (Thursday's quarterfinals). I think we're coming around slowly, but surely, but today was a game that, learning from yesterday's game, they know what to do to get to the next level."

Delzer was charged with there earned runs and scattered seven hits and three walks in the complete-game win. After her teammates got her the big lead, Delzer did what she is supposed to do: throw strikes. After getting the first two outs in the fifth, Delzer allowed a line single to Primrose Aholelei and gave up a two-run homer to Precious Aholelei on the next pitch. But she continued to throw strikes the rest of the way, allowing a one-out single and two-out walk in the sixth, but retired the last four batters to end the game.

Campbell took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Nunes' RBI single. Kaiser tied it in the fourth on Ivane Aholelei's line single to left.

After the big fourth inning, the Sabers insured their lead in the sixth on Ranches' RBI single followed by Dyllan Sanay-Shiraishi's run-scoring double.





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