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


ScoringLive staff
April 19, 2019, 7:37pm

 



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 CJ Caraang | SL CJ Caraang | SL




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