By Wes Nakama
The Maryknoll softball team completed its upward journey from a young and inexperienced preseason group to ILH champion Wednesday afternoon by rallying past Punahou, 8-2.
The visiting Spartans overcame a 1-0 deficit with four runs in the top of the sixth inning and Kasi Cruz pitched a five-hitter with seven strikeouts and three walks as they improved to 12-4 and earned the league’s top seed and first-round bye in next week’s DataHouse State Championships. Maryknoll will begin play in Wednesday’s quarterfinals at the University of Hawai’i’s Rainbow Wahine Stadium.
Punahou, which had won the regular season title, fell to 12-3 with its third straight loss after dropping its two games in the ILH tournament. The Buff ‘n Blue will begin state tournament play in Tuesday’s first round.
Punahou took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning on Lexi Hinahara’s home run, and starting pitcher Paige Brunn was pitching shutout ball through five frames. But the Spartans exploded for four runs in the sixth, highlighted by Palehua Silva’s two-run double down the left field line and Karly Sapolu’s RBI single to center.
Silva, a junior catcher, faced a 2-2 count when she slammed the double bringing in the go-ahead runs.
“I think (Brunn) stayed strong but we made adjustments, keeping it simple, sticking to our approach and trusting our teammates,” Silva said.
Maryknoll led, 4-1, by the end of the inning and after the Buff ‘n Blue closed it to 4-2 in the bottom half on back-to-back doubles by Taryn Ho and Hinahara, the Spartans put four more runs on the board to extend the lead to 8-2.
Meanwhile, Cruz closed out the complete game to set off the celebration.
“(The big lead) let me play a bit looser, just to know that we had extra cushion,” said Cruz, a senior right-hander who also went 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. “I just trusted in my teammates getting the outs, too.”
Maryknoll coach John Uekawa said the youthful Spartans — with only three seniors and one junior on the roster — took it upon themselves to improve throughout the season.
“The bottom line to it all is, they are self-made,” Uekawa said. “Prior ILH champions (from Maryknoll) … they knew the direction to take. This one (group) found it, and now they collaborate like a team. There’s no one or two (standouts) — there’s four, five, six, seven of them. Everybody started getting confident about themselves, and started maturing and understanding.”
Sapolu finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs, Silva went 2-for-3 with the two-run double and two runs scored, and Kyla Abad went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Hinahara finished 2-for-2 with the double and home run.
For Punahou, coach Boy Eldredge said his team is still searching for answers as to how to pump life back into a stagnant offense.
“If we can learn how to get through this, get out of this funk and have a good state tournament, then that’s what we’ll be really proud of,” Eldredge said. “I think the most surprising thing the past week and a half is just not knowing where our bats went. We’ve played this game long enough to know people go into slumps, and you might have two or three girls (slump), but to have the whole team at one time … We were hitting .389 as a team (in the regular season), and then all of a sudden we’re struggling to get runs across.
“So that’s been the real challenge, trying to figure that one out. So hopefully we do. We have a few days to figure it out and have a good state tournament.”
Photos: Garin Paguio
