Chargers pull away from Hurricanes, 6-1

Pearl City shortstop Darian Obara tries to make a play as Kapolei's Elora Tonaki slides into second base. Greg Yamamoto | SL

MANOA — Darian Obara got the job done with both her glove and her bat Wednesday night.

The senior shortstop batted 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored and made eight assists on defense to lead No. 2 Pearl City to a 6-1 win over No. 10 Kapolei in a first round game of the DataHouse/HHSAA Division I State Championships at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

The Chargers (12-3), who finished second in the Oahu Interscholastic Association, advanced to Thursday's quarterfinal round, where they will face third-seeded Lahainaluna at Noon.

The OIA sixth-place Hurricanes (5-12) will face Kealakehe in a consolation bracket game at 10:15 a.m. Friday.

Pearl City ace Tyanna Kaaialii tossed a complete-game four-hitter to go to 12-3 on the season. The 5-foot-2 right-hander lowered her ERA to 1.92.

Kaaialii, the OIA Western Division player of the year, threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 28 batters she faced. She struck out four and walked four. Of the 17 other outs Kaaialii recorded, 13 of them were ground-ball outs.

"The plan today was to keep her pitch count down, so we were pitching to contact and hopefully we would get ground balls like how we did and it worked out like it was scripted. Some things work out sometimes right with a little bit of luck," Chargers coach Chad Obara said.

Darian Obara made a handful of routine plays — and a couple of stellar ones. She went deep in the hole behind third base to field a ball off the bat of Tatum Guzman, but came up with it on the backhand and fired across the diamond for the first out of the inning.

"We just focus on doing our jobs for our pitcher and making all of the plays for her," Darian Obara said. "(Kaaialii) did a great job in the circle and we did a good job taking care of each other."

The Chargers have proven to be a prolific offense this season, but their defense has often been overlooked, Chad Obara said.

"We've been actually playing defense like that all year. The (OIA championship) game against Mililani we had the two errors in one inning, but I think we've got single-digit errors all season — total — so that's the kind of ball we've been playing," he said. "That's what I expect to see from them and I think that's what they expect to see out of themselves, too, so nothing special."

Pearl City drew first blood in the top of the first when freshman Jaeda McFarland got on with a one-out walk and moved to third on a Kapolei throwing error. McFarland came home on an RBI-ground out by Hailey-Alexis Yamaguchi.

McFarland gave her team a three-run lead with her one-out double to left-center off Kapolei pitcher Sadie Kapaku-You in the top of the fifth that plated both Taylor Shigeta and Kylie Tasaki.

"It was about belt-high," McFarland said of the full-count offering from Kapaku-You. "She kept throwing me outside, so I just made an adjustment."

McFarland fouled off three pitches before smacking the ninth pitch of the at bat to the outfield fence.

"Jaeda did a great job," Darian Obara said. "Even though she had two strikes she stayed calm and got the bat on the ball and ended up coming in clutch for our team."

Kapolei scored its lone run on Ciena Kauhi's two-out triple that scored Elora Tonaki in the bottom of the fifth.

Pearl City added three insurance runs in the top of the seventh. Darian Obara poked a single to right field that brought Tasaki in to score from second and came around to score herself on a two-out double by Kaaialii. One batter later, Noel Saunders plated Taylor Au — the courtesy runner for Kaaialii — with her single up the middle to close out the scoring.

Kapolei had the potential tying run on with Tonaki's four-pitch walk off to lead off the bottom of the seventh, but Kaaialii got Guzman to ground into a game-ending 4-6-3 double-play.

Kapaku-You went the distance for Kapolei. She gave up nine hits with one strikeout and one walk. Four of the six runs she allowed were earned.

Kiley Ozaki batted 2 for 3 with a double for the Hurricanes, who reached the state final last season.

Seven different players recorded a hit for the Chargers, including Cheyne Obara's 2-for-4 effort. They executed three sacrifice bunts, two of them by Bryanna Passi.

Pearl City has won all four meetings against Kapolei this season.

Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].