Punahou's D'Asha Saiki connects on a pitch against Maryknoll. CJ Caraang | SL

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SAND ISLAND — No. 8 Punahou rebounded from a disappointing loss on Tuesday to edge No. 6 Maryknoll, 8-7, in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu contest at Sand Island Park on Wednesday.

The Buffanblu put their 11-10 heartbreaking loss to Saint Francis (6-2) behind them to improve to 6-3 on the season and took first place in the ILH standings after Kamehameha (5-3) lost to Mid-Pacific, 5-4 on the same afternoon.

"The thing I'm most proud of is yesterday was an emotional loss and we gave away in the game in the last inning. For them to come back today and I looked at them they looked prepared and had that sharp focus. Really proud how they approached this one," said Punahou coach Boy Eldredge.

"To come back was good for us. I thought today's game was important for us. It helps our confidence moving on," added D'Asha Saiki.

The Spartans who played their first league game since Mar. 21 fell to 4-3 in the standings. Maryknoll participated in a softball tournament in Las Vegas over the Easter weekend and returned to the islands on Monday.

Kennedy Ishii pitched a complete game to toss four strikeouts and walked two in the win. Saiki, Janell Sato and Kawailana Mielke each had home runs to provide much-needed offensive jolts for Punahou.

"It feels great," Ishii said. "I know we were down after that last game. We knew we could come back and were better than that. We had to trust in each other to make plays and have each others' backs."

"She's been solid," Eldredge said of Ishii. "She gives us innings, in the middle she walks two in eight pitches or something like that but she found her way back."

Holding onto a 8-7 lead in the bottom of the seventh, Ishii forced Aloha Akaka and Liliana Thomas to pop out and fly out to second and center respectively. Kahilu McNicoll hit a deep single to left field, but Sydney Kamakaiwi flew out to left to end the game.

"I feel like I should've been nervous or anxious, but I wasn't. I trusted my team to make the plays to get out of it," said Ishii.

When confronted with the same situation yesterday, the Buffanblu made sure not to make the same mistake twice.

"I talked to them about that before we went into that inning. It's the exact same situation as yesterday, except we had a three-run lead instead of a one-run lead. If we don't give away bases, we should be okay. We mirrored what we had yesterday, we failed yesterday, but succeeded today," said Eldredge.

Punahou struck first after Mielke led off with a walk and came in to score off of Eri Mizuguchi's sacrifice fly to left field, but Maryknoll would answer back to tie the game at 1 after Akaka reached on an error and later scored on a wild pitch.

Sato hit a 1-2 pitch to left field for a two RBI home run to give the Buffanblu a 3-1 lead.

The Spartans responded with three runs of their own as Kamakaiwi singled to left and Ishii walked Nohea Yee and Logan Carlos to load the bases. Baylie Kahele single to left and Kanoe Tanigawa's sacrifice fly brought in a pair of runs and Akaka's single to right-center gave Maryknoll a 4-3 lead.

That lead was short-lived as McNicoll consecutively walked Maya Matsubara and Ishii. Saiki followed up by crushing a three RBI home run over the centerfield fence to spark the Buffanblu.

"That was huge," Elredge said. "Both D'Asha and Kawai's hits were big and D'Asha has been hot all year yet I thought her prior two at-bats weren't very good. Kawai has been struggling a bit so it was good to see her breakout too."

It was a tough afternoon for McNicoll who got Bailey Akimseu to ground out to short, but threw her ninth walk to Sato. She struck out two batters, but seven Punahou runs were earned. Aloha Akaka came in for McNicoll, but Mielke took the second pitch over the right field fence to make it, 8-4. Akaka finished scattering five hits and walking one.

"We swing the bat a lot and it's reassuring to have a couple runs on the board and it helps with our confidence," said Ishii.

Maryknoll had 10 walks overall for the game which gave Punahou easy scoring opportunities.

"That helped," said Saiki. "When we had walks, our batters were able to capitalize on that and scored."

"Just about every walk scored. We have to cut that down. They took advantage of the opportunity," said Maryknoll coach John Uekawa.

Ishii beaned McNicoll to lead off the fourth inning, Hee singled and Carlos was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The Spartans added two more runs after Saiki's throwing error to trail, 8-6.

The Spartans tightened up their defense in the fifth and sixth innings, holding Punahou scoreless and Hee added her third run of the game off of Tanigawa's RBI to trail by a run going into the seventh.

"We did what whatever we could to win the game, but the walks just killed us," lamented Uekawa.

Mizuguchi flew out to center, but Matsubara and Ishii each slammed a pair of doubles to right field, but Punahou came up empty-handed after Carlos threw it to home to get a sliding Matsubara for the second out and Saiki was caught stealing to head into the bottom of the seventh.

Punahou takes on PAC-5 (0-7) on Friday, Apr. 6 while Maryknoll plays at Iolani (3-4) on the same afternoon.