The Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Division Playoffs get underway Wednesday with four first-round games at school sites. The 12-team tournament has one of its deepest fields in recent memory with a number of serious contenders for the league championship, which will be awarded Saturday night at Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park.

Wednesday's winner advance to the quarterfinal round, where the top two seeds from both the East and the West will be waiting. I spoke with coaches from three of the four teams that have a first-round bye to get their thoughts on the tournament.

(Note: Moanalua and Kaiser both finished atop the East at 11-1, but Na Menehune won the coin toss to get the top seed. Mililani finished 9-3 in the West, as did Waianae and Campbell, but the Trojans drew the top seed.)

ScoringLive: How is your team coming around headed into the tournament?
Kristie Morikawa (Moanalua): Pretty good. We had some good, I don't know if you can say restful practices, but that's kind of how it's been feeling where right now we have the time to heal and regroup. This long break is good, but the kids are dying to get back in uniform and play."
Rose Antonio (Mililani): "We're coming around slowly. We suffered some injuries in the losses that we had, my pitcher was sick when we lost against Campbell — she had the fever all week — so hopefully we get healthy and we go in the tournament healthy because last year this time, we had a lot of injuries. Hopefully this year — knock on wood — will be a good experience for us and we come out and play and execute. I'm hoping for the best."
Mitch Matsumoto (Kaiser): "We're hanging in there, but I think what happened is we peaked early in the season. The last three games we played we struggled, so I'm hoping to get everything together again before Thursday."

SL: Which of Wednesday's four first-round pairings do you think will be the best game?
Morikawa: "To be honest, it's very characteristic of our staff that we only look at our bracket. I don't know if that's a good or bad things, but we tell our kids just worry about ourselves, shutout everything else and just worry about what we have in front of us. The teams on the East side are starting to pick up steam and as always, things on the West are complicated and confusing, so it'll be interesting."
Antonio: "Leilehua's playing real good and Pearl City is better than their record. I don't know too much about the East side, but I do know that Moanalua is tough. They have a lot of returnees, (but) I think Kailua-Leilehua would be the best game. You have the four (seed) on the East side, the five on the West side. Leilehua always plays us tough, too. Past experience shows that."
Matsumoto: "I think everybody's pretty much equal. I think for both Moanalua and us, we really wanted the No. 1 seed — it's always easier as the No. 1 seed — so things get a little tougher now."

SL: Which team do you see a darkhorse in the tournament?
Morikawa: "I will say that just kind of side-eyeing the West the past few weeks, all of us on our staff are throwing our hands up, because anyone can beat anyone on any day. I think all those teams on the West side could be teams playing in the semis of the championship. Anybody can have their day. You catch someone on a good or bad day and you never know what can happen."
Antonio: "Leilehua. They always come out hard and I believe that we're going to face them (Thursday), but all the West teams are good. There's a lot of parity in the division and for the last three years, it's always been up for grabs."
Matsumoto: "We don't really follow the West. It's something that we didn't really do and we should have. Year-in and year-out, they're always the better division, so just for Moanalua or us to get to the finals Saturday would be an accomplishment for us."

SL: Is this the most depth of quality teams that you can remember in the tournament in recent history?
Morikawa: "There used to be this clear division between Mililani at the top and the rest of the league, but now you're seeing this parity where on any given day, when your kids show up, anybody can beat anybody. It makes it a lot more interesting, because there's not really a clear-cut underdog or a powerhouse, it's just all on you."
Antonio: "Yes, I think so. In the West you have Waianae, Mililani, Campbell, even Pearl City and Leilehua are good, too. The pitchers are doing great this year keeping all the teams off balance. The pitching on the West side has been good, but I know the East side has some good pitchers, too, especially Moanalua and Kaiser. I just think the OIA is definitely up for grabs this year."
Matsumoto: "I haven't been involved in one of these tournaments for a long time. The last time I was really into it was 2005 or 2006, when I was coaching at Moanalua and I think we came in third or fourth in the state. Most of my time at Kaiser has been rebuilding. Last year we were Division II, so this is a totally different feel."

A full tournament schedule is listed below.

OIA Red Softball Tournament
(All games at 3:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted)
Wednesday
First round
Game 1 — W5 Leilehua (5-7) at E4 Kailua (6-6)
G2 — E6 Kahuku (4-8) at W3 Campbell (9-3)
G3 — W6 Pearl City (4-8) at E3 Castle (6-6)
G4 — E5 Roosevelt (4-8) at W4 Kapolei (6-6)
Thursday
Quarterfinals
G5 — G1 winner at W1 Mililani (9-3)
G6 — G2 winner at E2 Kaiser (11-1)
G7 — G3 winner at W2 Waianae (9-3)
G8 — G4 winner vs. E1 Moanalua (11-1) at CORP
Friday
Fifth-place semifinals (at higher seed)
G9 — G5 loser vs. G6 loser
G10 — G7 loser vs. G8 loser
Championship semifinals (at CORP)
G11 — G5 winner vs. G6 winner, 5 p.m. (TV: OC16)
G12 — G7 winner vs. G8 winner, 7 p.m. (TV: OC16)
Saturday
Fifth-place game (at higher seed)
G13 — G9 winner vs. G10 winner
Third-place game (at higher seed)
G14 — G11 loser vs. G12 loser
Championship game (at CORP)
G15 — G11 winner vs. G12 winner, 7 p.m. (TV: OC16)