By Wes Nakama
Mililani muscled its way to an early 9-3 lead Friday night and then held off scrappy Maryknoll, 10-7, to repeat as DataHouse/HHSAA Division I Softball State Champion.
A near capacity crowd of about 1,100 at Rainbow Wahine Stadium watched the Trojans hit four home runs — including Kahiau Aina’s three-run homer in the second inning and Kodie Ancheta’s grand slam in the third — and finish the season at 15-1. The Spartans, who rallied for four runs in the last three innings, saw their six-game win streak end to finish the season at 14-5.
“We tell the team we need everybody, not just one or two players, we need everybody,” Mililani coach Rose Antonio said. “And everybody contributed. This team is good about that.”
Maryknoll, which began the regular season at 3-3, had won six in a row and 11 of its previous 12 in claiming the ILH championship and reaching the state title game. The Spartans wasted no time getting started Friday night, taking a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning after leadoff batter Reyni Hiraoka singled to center, advanced to second on Kyla Abad’s walk and third on a fielder’s choice, then scored on Palehua Silva’s single to left field.
But the 1-0 lead did not last very long. Hinano Bautista tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning with a monster home run blast high over the wall in right field. After two walks and with two outs, Aina slammed her three-run homer to center field, making the score 4-1.
“I’m actually really grateful that I could do it defensively and on offense,” said Bautista, who pitched six and two-thirds innings and also went 1-for-1 with the homer and three walks. “I just wanted it for this game, and I just had to stick to my mechanics and do my thing.”
After Maryknoll closed it to 4-3 in the top of the third inning on an RBI groundout by Kayla Miller and Karley Sapolu’s sacrifice fly to right field, the Trojans’ biggest slugger, Ori Mailo, led off the bottom of the third with a towering home run to make it 5-3. Two outs later, with the bases loaded after two walks, a single and a fielder’s choice groundout, Ancheta blasted her grand slam to extend the lead to 9-3.
Spartans coach John Uekawa said the Trojans’ constant offensive pressure — via singles, walks or home runs — is tough to overcome.
“This Mililani team, they’re workmanlike, to the point where they will do anything and everything to win,” Uekawa said. “That takes big character and a lot of confidence, and when you really look at everything that was out there … at this point, they were the better team. We gotta be honest.”
Maryknoll got a run back in the fifth on Silva’s solo home run to cut it to 9-4, but the Trojans answered with another insurance run after three walks in the top of the sixth to push the lead back to six at 10-4.
The Spartans, however, were not quite done yet, either. Kasi Cruz hit a run-scoring single to left-center to cut it to 10-5 with one out in the seventh, and Kailee Gattu slammed a two-out ground-rule double that bounced over the fence in right-center to make it 10-6. Cienna Kamisato then followed with an RBI single to center to close it to 10-7 with the tying run at the plate.
That’s when Antonio took out Bautista and brought in Taylor Adriano, who got the final batter to pop out to first base.
“No lead is comfortable, you can’t take anything for granted,” Antonio said. “You don’t fool around — you gotta do what it takes to get that (final) out. I had confidence that (Adriano) could come in and do it.”
In the end, Antonio said Mililani’s second straight state title was earned.
“We kept working hard, and we learned,” Antonio said. “Every day, we worked.”