Chase for the Championship
Campbell dethrones Mililani, 16-4, to claim first state title since 2010


  



Fri, May 15, 2015 @ [ 7:00 pm ]


F/5TH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Campbell 5 4430XX16181
Mililani 3 0 100XX492

W: Elisa Favela    L: Aubree Kim

MIL: Maya Yoshiura 2-3 run 2 rbi HR
CAMP: Elisa Favela 2-3 2 runs 7 rbi 2 HR / 5.0 IP 4 ER 3 K


MANOA — One year after a heartbreaking loss to the same team in the state final, the Campbell softball team earned its redemption Friday night.

Elisa Favela clubbed a pair of home runs, drove in seven runs and tossed a complete game to lead Campbell to a convincing 16-4 win over Mililani in the title game of the DataHouse/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I State Softball Championships before an overflow crowd of about 1,200 at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

The Sabers (17-2), who are ranked fourth in the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings and were unseeded in the state tournament, avenged a pair of losses to the top-seeded and third-ranked Trojans (15-3) by posting the most runs by a winning team in a championship game. It was also the most combined runs in a title game in state tournament history.

"It feels so amazing. I'm speechless, because I knew that we could win but we just had to work hard," said Favela, who hit a grand slam in the first inning and added a three-run shot in the second. "It feels so amazing that we won by a lot and we just worked so hard to come here and just show that we wanted to win."

A year ago, Campbell could only watch as Mililani celebrated a 2-1 win in the championship game after a walk-off bloop single. A week ago — the third time the teams played this season — Mililani came away with a 4-3 win in the Oahu Interscholastic Association tournament final. It just made this one that much sweeter for the girls from Ewa Beach.

"I don't know how much it was on the coaches' minds, I don't know how much it was on the players' minds, but inside of me, the reason I pushed this year was because of the way we ended last year," Sabers' coach Shag Hermosura said. "It could have gone either way, but I just wanted this crew to come back and take this this year.

Friday night's game, however, was a one-sided affair with Campbell racking up 18 hits and jumping all over Mililani starting pitcher Aubree Kim, who was dealing with a groin injury she suffered in a semifinal win over Maryknoll Thursday night.

"We played them three times before this year and we pretty much knew the pitching plan and for us, how to approach this game and we knew what they were going to come with and we kept our heads down and we did what we had to do on the bottom and not chase the up pitches," Hermosura said. "They prepared themselves. They prepared to give us an opportunity to accomplish something like this today."

The Sabers got the scoring going early by sending eight batters to the plate in the top of the first inning. Kim issued three free passes, including a bases-loaded walk to Sierra Mariano, and the grand slam to Favela, who belted the first pitch she saw well beyond the left field fence.

"I just felt like this is the ball and my coaches are always telling me that the pitch that comes to me that I feel comfortable with, I have to just swing the bat," said Favela, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. "I have to just make sure that it's a good swing. I think it must have been down the middle or maybe inside. I didn't know it was going to go that far and when it did I was shocked, but I was so happy."

Mililani answered Campbell's five runs in the top of the first with three in the bottom of the frame on Maya Yoshiura's two-run homer and Kristen Ishii's RBI single.

"I had to just relax and my teammates were just telling me that they had my back and yeah, I let the home run go, but just to shake it off because we had so much more innings and I just had to relax," Favela said, who scattered nine hits, struck out three and walked one.

The Sabers added four runs in the top of the second — all coming with two outs — including Favela's two-run homer over the left field fence. They sent eight batters to the plate in each of the first three innings. Mariano drove in two of the Sabers' four third-inning runs with a double down the right field line.

"That gave us a lot of confidence coming into the game because last game, Aubree shut us down kind of and we really wanted to be on top of our game and hit and bunch up our hits and keep scoring," second baseman Cydney Curran said of her team's hot start.

Kim, the winning pitcher of both of Mililani's previous two wins over Campbell this season, allowed nine runs on seven hits in two innings of work before coming out in favor of sophomore Misha Carreira.

Trojans' coach Rose Antonio said Kim's groin injury was worse than she expected.

"It was from last night, the third inning, (but) I didn't want to say it," Antonio said of her junior pitcher. "She tried to battle through, but just couldn't gut it through. The kids did good. They had a good tournament."

The Sabers didn't let up much against Carreira, who was tagged for seven runs on 11 hits in three innings.

Mililani got a run back on Merilis Rivera's RBI-single to score Ishii, which made the score 13-4, but it mattered little as Campbell added three more insurance runs in the top of the fourth and held Mililani scoreless the rest of the way. The game was called after five innings due to the 10-run differential mercy rule.

"I'm speechless because we wanted it so bad after losing OIA's and last year's states," said Curran, who batted 3 for 5 with three runs scored and was named to the All-Tournament Team. "We were so hungry and what we always say is ‘eat.' We were starving for this win and we finally got it."

Center fielder Nashlynn Anguay also batted 2 for 3 with a double, three RBI and three runs scored and right fielder Nikki Corla went 3 for 4 with a pair of runs scored for the Sabers, who were playing their fourth game in as many days.

Anguay and Yagin — two of three seniors on the team — were joined by Mariano on the All-Tournament Team.

"It feels really, really great because I'm so proud of these girls," said Hermosura, who claimed his first state title as a head coach. "They worked hard all season — like every other school that was in the league — they absorbed everything we threw at them to get better and accomplish each goal one at a time up to today."

Hermosura had led Campbell to two third-place finishes and a pair of runner-up finishes since taking over for David Perreira in 2010, when it won its only other state title.

"For myself, it's like a relief because it feels like we got over a hump," Hermosura said. "All these years we tried and tried and we'd come in second, we'd come in third and now we got over the hump and hopefully we can stay on top for years to come."



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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