Castle's Taylor Ah Mook Sang touches home plate to score a run in a win over Moanalua. Tyler Guieb | SL

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SALT LAKE — Kaylee Ishii wasn't given much to hit Saturday morning, but when she got her pitch, the Castle sophomore made it count.

Ishii belted a three-run home run and Kacie Lam pitched a complete game to lead Castle to a 13-3 win over host Moanalua in six innings on a hot and humid day in Salt Lake.

The Knights improved to 4-4 with the win and moved into fourth place in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I East standings. They hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Na Menehune (4-4), by virtue of winning both meetings this season.

"This was very big in getting us back to .500 again," Castle coach Jon Berinobis said. "Moanalua is tough. We've had a tough time beating them the last two, three years, but I'm glad to see our girls have all moved on from that."

Despite the offensive output, it wasn't exactly a hit parade for the Knights, who benefitted from 10 walks issued by Moanalua pitchers, three hit batsmen and five errors by the hosts. In fact, the visitors recorded just three base hits on the day.

"That's tough to do, but I've seen it happen and anyway we can get ‘em, we'll take ‘em," Berinobis said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Walks, hit by pitches, that's all part of the game."

Lam, a freshman pitcher, allowed a pair of Moanalua runs in the bottom of the first, but settled down to retire nine straight batters. She allowed three runs (one unearned) on five hits to pick up the win.

After the game, Lam credited her batterymate behind the plate, Taylor Ah Mook Sang, who calls all the pitches for the Knights.

"She did really good behind the plate," said Lam, who did not walk a batter. "She blocked most of my pitches in the dirt and was keeping (Moanalua) off balance."

Berinobis said the duo was in sync Saturday.

"Kacie pitched a great game and Taylor called a great game," Berinobis said. "We struggled against the last two teams — we couldn't throw strikes — but today she came out and had a good day."

Na Menehune held a 2-1 lead before the Knights tied it in the top of the third on a Darrien Dacosin RBI ground ball that scored Paige Matsuki and went ahead on a two-run base knock by Ariel Hendricks in the fourth.

Shea Kauanui drew a walk to leadoff the top of the fifth inning. Two batters later, Ah Mook Sang walked on fourth pitches. After a pop up for the second out of the inning, Ishii crushed a 3-2 pitch over the head of Moanalua left fielder Shanelle Lum that easily scored Kauanui and Ah Mook Sang. Ishii also came around to score on the play.

"It was a full count and I know I needed to bring my teammates home," said Ishii of her first home run of the season. "I just saw my inside pitch and I swung at it. Just like practice."

It was her only official at-bat of the game. She walked in each of her other three plate appearances Saturday.

"I was kind of bummed, but that (third) at-bat I made it back," Ishii said.

Castle sent 10 batters to the plate in the top of the sixth and scored six runs to blow the game open before Lam sent Moanalua down in order in the bottom of the inning to end the game due to the 10-run differential mercy rule.

"We just had to push," Lam said. "Everyone's energy was getting up and we just really wanted to win this game. Our team really backs each other up."

Moanalua coach Kristie Morikawa said the game was reminiscent of the first meeting between the teams back on March 10, which resulted in a 15-5 Castle win.

"It was a very similar game to the one we played at Castle: we kept it close and then let it go in the end," Morikawa said.

Jordan Snow took the loss for Na Menehune. She started the game and lasted three-plus innings before being relieved by Kyler Tsukada, who was charged with nine runs.

"Our two pitchers are young — maybe not even in years, but just in experience — so we're going to battle through the walks and they know that they're going to have to hold it down while they're up there, but what that means is we have to hit, which we didn't do today and it also means that when they feed us those routine plays, we have to make those outs," Morikawa said.