Kailua pitcher Dyani Cummings-Lani went the distance to earn the win over Castle, allowing just two runs on seven hits, striking out three and walking two. John Lujan | Special to SL

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04101637_kailua_vs_castle_04102016_john_lujan_jvl105gow.jpg - John Lujan | Special to SL

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KANEOHE – One team took a turn for the better and the other for the worse.

Kailua backed sophomore pitcher Dyani Cummings-Lani offensively and defensively in an 8-2 win against host Castle Saturday to stay in contention in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division softball race.

The Surfriders (6-3) have a realistic chance to finish second in the division that will earn them a first-round bye for the 12-team OIA tournament.  They still have games with Moanalua, Roosevelt and Kaiser. The Knights dropped to 5-5.

Cummings-Lani allowed two runs, one earned, in the complete-game win. She scattered seven hits and walked two with three strikeouts. Her defense made some plays to keep damage to a minimum.

"Today was a great win," Kailua coach Tamara Kaluau said. "The girls came hard, we took advantage of Castle's errors. The key was our young pitcher, Dyani. She really settled herself down and pitched good for seven innings."

Cummings-Lani (5-2) needed to limit her walks, Kaluau said. She had walked nine in her last three starts, but walked only two Knights.

"She's really learning the mechanics of pitching. This year, we're really working hard to dominate that position, take ownership to it. She's finally coming along."

Meanwhile, the Knights kept stubbing their toes with errors on defense and offense. Five errors accounted for four unearned runs. They also had a runner doubled off third after a batter flied out.

"One of our biggest goals was to cut down on the errors," Castle coach Jon Berinobis said. "We just went right back up there, I guess. The mental mistakes, the poor choices."

Kailua sent 11 batters to the plate in a four-run third inning to break the scoreless deadlock. A two-out error with runners at second and third scored both to give Kailua a 2-0 lead. After Harley Texeira was hit by a pitch to push Desiree Chang to second, Cummings-Lani helped her own cause with an RBI single that scored one run, but the left fielder misplayed the ball, allowing another run to score to make it 4-0. A hit batter put runners at the corners, but the runner on third got picked off third to end the inning.

The Knights retorted in the bottom of the third on Rayla Keanu's two out, run-scoring double to the left-center alley. But Keanu was gunned down at third trying to stretch her hit to end the inning.

Two errors in the fifth inning paved the way for two more unearned runs off Turner. Runners who reached on errors would eventually score on Texeira RBI ground out and a Cummings-Lani sacrifice fly to make it 6-1.

Kailua added a run in the sixth. Robi Lono led off with a hit batsman, took second on a passed ball and went to third on single by Bryanne-Marie Soares, who then stole second. Delcie Williams reached on an error, as Lono scored to make it 7-1. Moani Kapahu lined out to short and the runner at third was double off to end the inning.

Castle got a run back in the sixth on Moana Hillen's RBI single, but Kailua matched that with a run in the top of the seventh a Soares RBI single.

Castle will host Kaimuki on Thursday and finish the regular season on April 21 at Roosevelt.

"We expected a lot better game," Berinobis said. "It doesn't turn out that way all the time. You have to come out to play. That's something we have to work on still, going on to this part of the season. It won't matter now; we'll probably finish fourth or fifth."