Sadie Kapaku-You and the Hurricanes host Jocelyn Alo and the Sabers Friday afternoon to start the OIA season. ScoringLive photo illustration

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The Kapolei and Campbell softball teams will start this season how they ended the last: by facing one another.

After heavy rains washed out both teams' scheduled Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I West opener earlier in the week, the Hurricanes will host the Sabers Friday in a rematch of last year's state championship game.

Campbell pounded out 12 runs on 13 hits en route to a 12-2 rout of Kapolei in a game called after six innings to claim its second straight state title.

Then-junior catcher Jocelyn Alo crushed a two-run homer in the top of the first inning and plated two more runs with a fourth-inning triple and went on to be named most outstanding player of the tournament.

Alo, who is signed with reigning NCAA champion Oklahoma, is back behind the plate, along with pitcher Danielle Cervantes — last year's All-Hawaii D1 Player of theYear — for their senior seasons.

"We're just fortunate that we have them back, and along with our center fielder, Cieana Curran, solidify us up the middle defensively," Campbell coach Michael Hermosura said.

While Alo's offensive prowess is well known — she hit .577 with six home runs and 20 RBIs — her impact doesn't stop there.

"Jocelyn gained a lot of experience from last year and from playing on the mainland over the summer and that gives Dani and the other pitchers a lot of confidence," Hermosura said. "She can control the game and she knows when to call a timeout and talk to the pitchers if anything goes wrong. They continue to put in a lot of hard work and I expect that it's going to be a good battery for us again."

Cervantes, a UH-Hilo signee, went 11-0 with an ERA of 1.18. In 77 1/3 innings of work she struck out 104 and walked just 16.

Kapolei coach Stacie Mahoe knows that minimizing the impact that both Alo and Cervantes have on Friday's game will be in her team's best interests.

"Those two compete all the time and they're both great athletes, not just great ball players and they're both smart players so we have to stay within ourselves and stick to what we're strong at," Mahoe said. "With Dani we can't let her control what we're swinging at and we have to stay smart and choose our pitches well. With Jocelyn we obviously want to try to keep her in the park, but that's not always easy and how we approach her might depend on if there's runners on base or not. They've got a strong lineup all the way through, but she's definitely got that really strong bat in the middle of it."

Opposing Cervantes for Kapolei will be senior ace Sadie Kapaku-You, who was selected to the All-Hawaii First Team as a utility pick last year. She posted a 13-4 record in 2016 with an ERA of 2.25 in 115 innings of work.

"Sadie is going to be Sadie: she's going to be tough with her drop ball, so when we get in the box we've really got to make adjustments, we've really got to be disciplined at the plate and make good contact and execute our offense," Hermosura said. "You know that it's always going to be a battle with her because she's a great pitcher and she's not going to give up — she's always going to battle, battle, battle."

Mahoe, who took over for longtime coach Tony Saffery in the offseason, is grateful to have a seasoned veteran like Kapaku-You, a fourth-year varsity player, to lead her team.

"It's definitely a bonus to have someone like her," said Mahoe, who has been with the Hurricanes as an assistant since 2003 and served as an interim coach while Saffery took a year-long sabbatical to serve as a Chaminade assistant in 2010.

"My middle daughter is the same age as Sadie and so we've seen Sadie on the field since she was 10 years old and she was always a competitor," Mahoe said. "She's been in competitive situations for years and years and years, so to have someone with that experience and leadership ability and desire to go out there and do the best she can, I think it's only beneficial for everyone."

In addition to Saffery's departure, Kapolei must also replace its entire starting infield from a season ago, minus Kapaku-You and junior catcher Lili Kaimi-Montira.

"We've got a lot of new faces on the team this year on the field and one thing we talk about is finding ways to work together, to help each other out and to — no matter what happens — just keep moving forward and I think if we do that we'll definitely be competitive," Mahoe said. "I think the preseason really did help us. It definitely gave us a chance to see how we can fit the pieces together and gave us a lot of opportunities to try a lot of things so we have a good picture of how we're going to start off and I like what I've seen so far, but we know that there's always room for adjustments as we go through the situation and things continue to progress."

Mahoe said there is no motivation of revenge against the Sabers.

"I think we just know that just about any opponent we face in this division will come at us," Mahoe said. "Everyone is strong, everyone is competitive, they've got ball players that can hit, they've got pitching and the defense have been impressive from what I've seen. It's a tough opponent out of the gate no doubt, but it's great in the sense that we will know where we stand right off the bat, so it's a great opportunity, for sure."

First pitch between the Sabers and Hurricanes is scheduled for 3 p.m.