HONOLULU — Strictly calling it an all-Interscholastic League of Honolulu softball state championship doesn’t do it justice; one school has been there and done that, while the other has not done anything on the state stage.
That could change on Thursday.
Wednesday’s Datahouse / HHSAA Division I softball semifinals at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium yielded an intriguing winner-take-all showdown between defending champion Iolani and first-time finalist Maryknoll.
Both had to dispatch foes from the powerful Oahu Interscholastic Association West Division to get there. First, Maryknoll entered uncharted territory with Wednesday’s 9-2 win over OIA champ Kapolei as Jenna Sniffen tossed a three-hitter and the team continued to rally around the recent emotional loss of a teammate’s family member. Then, Iolani overpowered OIA runner-up Mililani, 10-4, behind an impressive two-way performance from pitcher Ailana Agbayani.
It's the first all-ILH D-I softball final since 2013.
“It’s for the coaches, the parents and especially the players,” Maryknoll coach John Uekawa said. “This is our first finals ever. Looking at that, I think it’s going to be very exciting for everybody.”
First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at RWSS.
A common thread in the two semifinals was untimely errors by the OIA squads that contributed to significant early leads for their ILH counterparts.
After starting ILH play 1-3, including a 10-3 loss to Kamehameha, the Spartans rattled off seven straight wins to come within a game of taking the ILH crown before losing back-to-back contests to the Raiders. Overall, the Raiders won three of five encounters with the Spartans.
But three straight wins in the state tournament have the Spartans right back to where they need to be.
Wednesday’s win over OIA champ Kapolei was convincing as any of them. To back up Sniffen, second baseman and leadoff hitter Carys Murakami went 3-for-4 with a double, home run, four runs scored and three RBIs, while shortstop Nellian McEnroe-Marinas went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs as the team barreled up to hit line drives, per Uekawa’s instruction.
The Hurricanes did not score until the seventh, when it was too late.
The team has dedicated its tournament play to McEnroe-Marinas’ nephew, four-month-old Xavier, who recently passed. The Spartans’ batting helmets are adorned with a picture of him.
“It’s a rough time, but having the support from this team really helps,” said McEnroe-Marinas, a junior who has committed to play for the powerhouse University of Oklahoma softball program.
“We’ve seen Iolani a million times,” she said of Thursday’s finals matchup. We know who their players are, what they can hit, what their plan is. I feel like we just have to stick to our plan, play our game, keep the mistakes low and I feel like we’ll do good.”
Sniffen struck out five and walked five to outduel Hurricanes’ ace Jerzie Liana, who gave up 12 hits and six earned runs in going the distance.
The Hurricanes committed five errors in the loss, all in either the second or fourth innings, when the Spartans did most of their damage.
“Wrong time to be making errors,” Kapolei interim head coach Enson Queypo said. “You gotta take your hat off to the Maryknoll pitcher. She pitched a gem, kept us off balance all night. We were chasing her changeup and pitches outside of the strike zone. They hit the ball pretty well and capitalized off of our mistakes.”
In the nightcap, the Raiders jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third thanks to Agbayani’s three-run shot to left-center, with a Mililani error accounting for one of the baserunners. The Trojans got three runs back in the bottom of the frame with a two-out rally, capped with catcher Jackie Kirkpatrick’s homer to right-center.
Iolani tacked on another four runs in the sixth when two walks and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases and a hooking ball hit to left field couldn’t be cleanly tracked for an error, allowing all three runs to come in. Agbayani doubled in another run for an 8-3 lead.
After K. Matsuda singled in a run in the bottom of the sixth, Iolani pushed across two insurance runs in the top of the seventh.
The Trojans loaded the bases with three singles in the bottom of the seventh but Agbayani – who was inserted in the game in the third to relieve Allie Capello and gave up Kirkpatrick’s home run – was similarly unfazed and responded with three straight strikeouts to end the game. She picked up the win going five innings.
Dani Monroe took the loss for Mililani going 5 2/3 innings.
Agbayani, who was a freshman on Iolani’s 2019 state title team, wore a smile even during the trouble spot.
“I think it was the noise from both sides,” she said. “But in my mind, even with the yelling and taunting of Mililani, I knew I had my friends and family all in the stands cheering me on.”
Her father, former Major League Baseball player Benny Agbayani, coached Iolani to its first softball state title in nearly two decades in the last season held before the COVID pandemic. Now he’ll try to do it on either side of a two-year stoppage of official competition.
“It’s great to have this opportunity for the girls,” Benny Agbayani said. “So grateful that we got to play in the state tournament (for the first time since) 2019. It’s a blessing for these girls here at Rainbow Stadium because some of these girls might not get a chance to ever play here. … It’s going to be a battle.”
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.