Kapolei, Castle earn top seeds for OIA tournament


Division champions Castle in the East and Kapolei in the West are the top seeds for the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red softball tournament.

The 12-team tournament begins Monday with games at school sites. East runner-up Kailua and West runner-up Campbell also draw first-round byes. The top two seeds of each division host their first games Tuesday. After taking Wednesday off, the semifinals resume Thursday with semifinals at CORP. The title game is 7 p.m. Friday. The semifinals and championship will be televised live on OC16.

In Monday's openers, East 6 Moanalua will travel to West 3 Wai'anae; West 6 Leilehua will visit East 3 Kaimuki; East 4 Roosevelt will host West 5 Mililani at Stevenson; and East 5 Kalani will visit East 4 Pearl City. All games start at 3:30 p.m.

First-round losers are eliminated from the tournament.

Kapolei will play the winner of Roosevelt-Mililani; Kailua will take on the winner of Wai'anae-Moanalua; Campbell will battle the winner of Leilehua-Kaimuki; and Castle will host the winner of Kalani-Pearl City. The quarterfinal losers advance to the fifth-place bracket games.

The top six teams of the tournament advance to the Division I state tournament.

In Wednesday's OIA White openers, East 3 McKinley will visit West 2 Waialua and East 2 Kalaheo will host West 3 Nanakuli.

In Thursday's semfinals, the winner of McKinley-Waialua travels to Kahuku and the winner of Kalaheo-Nanakuli visits Waipahu.

Four teams in the White tournament will secure Division II state berths.

The semifinal winners play for the championship, 5 p.m. Friday at CORP in a televised game. The losers play for third, 3:30 p.m. Friday at the higher-seeded team's site.