Brittany Hawn broke a scoreless tie with two-outs in the bottom of the seventh, lacing a rocket down the left field line, and racing around the diamond for a walk-off home run in a 1-0 win over Kaimuki in the first game of a doubleheader.

"If I could just get contact and don't get jammed and stay off the plate maybe she (Kaimuki pitcher Ehlen Awaya) would give me a nice one to hit...and it was my pitch in the zone and I just tried to make contact and go with it." said Hawn of her game-winning hit.

The victory was twice as sweet as it also clinched the Knights their second straight OIA Red East division title, and with it a top seed in the upcoming league playoffs.

"If we lost two (games against Kaimuki) it kind of would set everything back, and I think we would have fallen into third (place in the division). We needed to win this one, this was the important one." said Castle head coach Jon Berinobis.

And while Hawn's heroics at the plate may have brought Castle the victory, the tone of the game was definitely set on the mound, in a classic pitcher's duel between Knights' starter Christin Tesoro and Kaimuki's Awaya.

The senior right-hander Awaya scattered six hits in her first six innings of work, striking out three and walking just one, and retired two batters in the seventh before Hawn's game-winner.

"Again she (Awaya) was on her game... she beats us here last year." remarked Berinobis.

"But our pitcher (Tesoro) did good too... we asked her to come step forward and she's done that, she kept them (the Castle hitters) off balance."

Tesoro also held the Bulldogs hitters in check, surrendering no more than one hit in any inning, finishing with no earned runs on five hits, five strikeouts and a walk in seven innings, but credited much of her success to the effort of her team as a whole.

"They had super nice catches on (a number of) foul balls... and hard plays they got down." said Tesoro.

Kaimuki third baseman Krysta Yasui was 2-for-3 from the plate, which included a pair of stolen bases in the top of the third inning give the Bulldogs their best scoring chance. But Tesoro would induce a trio of ground ball outs, all to Jade Rodgers in the hot corner, to extinguish the threat.

Hawn would finish 2-for-4 from the dish with a single and a home run. Rodgers was 2-for-3 with a stolen base.

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