Chantelle Shimabukuro scattered four hits in a complete game effort to notch her fourth win of the season. Michael Lasquero | SL

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Michael Lasquero | SL

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Michael Lasquero | SL

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AIEA — Na Alii came up with timely hits down the stretch to surge past visiting Radford, 7-2 at Aiea Annex Field Thursday afternoon.

Aiea, the defending Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II champs, netted three runs each in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings to improve to 8-1 in league play.

Chantelle Shimabukuro scattered four hits in a complete game effort to notch her fourth win of the season. She also scored two runs and batted 3 for 4 with two RBIs and two doubles as the team's leadoff hitter.

Shimabukuro took over as the team's main pitcher after All-Hawaii First Team selection Poamai Tuli went down with a knee injury after the season opener.

"Out of all the games that she pitched this year, I thought this was one of her better games as far as percentage of strikes to ball ratio," Aiea coach Alan Higuchi said on Shimabukuro. "She really pounded the zone with good pitches, change up was leaning over. Considering this season with the little that she's been pitching, I thought she did an excellent job."

Radford, who was playing its fifth game in seven days, dropped to 4-4 for the season.

"This was a good experience for us because they're one of the top two teams," said Radford coach Mike Okimoto.

On the other hand, Aiea was on the field for the first time since March 19. Higuchi said he was proud of his team's effort in practice during the school's spring break.

"During the break we had a lot of intense practices and the girls dedicated themselves to coming to practice," said Higuchi. "In the past we would have a hard time getting them to come out because it's our break, (but) this break for some reason, majority of the girls committed to our practices.

"I thought it was a great reward for them to do well today as a team. I think anytime the reward can match the work ethic they put in, then it becomes a worthwhile experience for them."

The home team scored first when Trini Atuatasi drove in cleanup hitter Tesi Tavale in the bottom of the second, but it was a close game for most of the contest.

It wasn't until the fifth inning when Aiea began to pick up steam. Rayna Higuchi hit a ground ball through the middle of the infield before Shimabukuro drove her home with an RBI double. Taira Shibata plated Shimabukuro one batter later and scored the final run of the inning when Tavale hit a sharp ball down the left foul line.

Radford stormed back in the top of the sixth to make things interesting. Baileigh Susak got the second hit on Shimabukuro and scored on Kirsten Basald's RBI triple. Basald later scored on Kaylee Roberts' squeeze play to make the score 4-2.

Aiea remained calm after the setback and was able to take advantage of two Radford errors ingot the bottom of the frame. Piikea Tauala reached on a fielding error and was replaced by courtesy runner Jhermayne Ea with one out on the board. 

Venetia-May Ueoka's sacrifice bunt moved Ea over before Higuchi got a hit to put runners at the corners. Shimabukuro drove Ea home on her second RBI double of the game to make the score 5-2 with one out remaining. Higuchi and Shimabukuro scored one batter later when Shibata's hit into shallow right field was mishandled by the Rams' second baseman.

"We try not to put pressure on ourselves because it starts to unravel," said Shimabukuro. "We just said to ourselves that we're just going to hit so the pressure is off."