Title game of the OIA D1 baseball tournament will feature two perennial league powers. ScoringLive photo illustration

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The championship game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I baseball tournament will feature two of the perennial league powers Saturday night.

Two-time defending champion Kailua, the top seed out of the Eastern Division and No. 7 team in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, will try for its 15th OIA crown when it faces off against the third seed out of the West in unranked Mililani.

First pitch between the Surfriders (12-2) and Trojans (11-4) is scheduled for approximately 6 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Kailua can become the seventh program to win an OIA baseball championship in at least three consecutive seasons. It would be the first since Campbell did so from 2013 to 2015.

"It's always exciting. It's fun for our players to have a chance to play in this game," said Surfriders coach Corey Ishigo, who has led his alma mater to eight league titles.

Kailua dropped two of three games in late March, but has won its last six games since then.

Ishigo's club will be playing its third game of the tournament, whereas Mililani will be playing its fourth in as many days.

Kailua also has the benefit of a fresh bullpen after its top two starting pitchers, Stone Parker and Bryson Ballesteros, both logged complete games. Parker struck out nine and scattered three hits in a 10-1 quarterfinal win over West fourth seed Leilehua Thursday and Ballesteros followed with a one-hit, eight strikeout gem in Friday's 1-0 semifinal victory over West runner-up Pearl City.

"I feel like it helps us a lot. I feel like our offense can do a lot better, but we've been handling our own right now and we're just really trying to work to win (Saturday). We're playing game by game," said senior center fielder Dakota Kadooka, who drove in the lone run against the Chargers Friday.

The Surfriders lost just one player to graduation last season, but it was All-Hawaii Division I Player of the Year, Joey Cantillo — now a member of the San Diego Padres organization.

"This means a lot to our team and we've been working for this all year and we just want to win it for coach Corey and our team," Ballesteros said.

While Kailua's 14 league titles are second only to Waipahu's 20, Mililani has just one OIA championship to its credit.

The Trojans' lone crown came in 1997. They will be making their first appearance in the OIA final since 2015, when they lost to Campbell.

"It's been a while. We've always just got through the OIAs, but these guys played their hearts today so it feels good," Mililani coach Mark Hirayama said after Friday night's 6-5 semifinal victory over the Sabers.

Hirayama's squad exacted revenge on Campbell, which won both regular season meetings against the Trojans by a combined three runs.

"We always knew we would have to face them again in OIAs or states and we fell short twice — 2-0 and 1-0 — and we told ourselves that it's not going to happen again," said senior catcher Korrey Siracusa. "Today we just came out battling. We wanted to set a different tone. The first couple times we played them we were passive, but today we were aggressive and I think we jumped on them 2-0 early, 3-0, put the pressure on them and made things happen."

Late in the 12-game regular season, the Trojans were shut out in back-to-back games by Campbell and Pearl City, respectively, and dropped three out of four after an 8-5 defeat at Leilehua a week later. Since then they have reeled off five consecutive wins.

"That's the great thing about baseball is you lose one today, but the sun's going to come up tomorrow and you've got another day to play and what you do yesterday has nothing to do with what you're going to do today, so we've got to just keep looking forward and learn from our mistakes," said Hirayama, whose team finished third in the West standings.

Mililani opened the tournament with a 4-0 home victory over East sixth seed Roosevelt before a convincing 12-1 road win over East runner-up Kalani in five innings in Thursday's quarterfinal round.

Friday night the Trojans jumped out to an early lead, but fell behind after Campbell scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth before rallying for three runs in the top of the fifth.

"We had to stay within ourselves," Siracusa said. "There was plenty of time left. We still had the fifth, sixth, seventh innings and a lot of things can happen in nine outs."

Hirayama has repeatedly cited the team's "one through 30" mentality. That is, that every player on the roster has a role.

"You just never know who's going to get that call or get that feeling that ‘hey, you know this guy has been doing it in practice, let's see what he's got.' It's no pressure; We talk about preparation and getting yourself ready to go and when you get your shot just lay it all on the line and whatever happens, happens," Hirayama said.

The Trojans' opponent Saturday will be the same one that knocked them out of championship contention in last year's OIA tournament.

Kailua belted Mililani pitching for 13 runs on 12 hits in a 10-run win in the semifinals last year. The game was called in the bottom of the sixth inning due to the mercy rule.

"We lost to Kailua last year, but we get to go back and try to redeem ourselves, so it's going to be a good one, for sure," Siracusa said. "To win would be awesome. The class of 2018 is a special group of guys. We have 15 guys on the team and we want to be that class that leaves that legacy behind."

Both Hirayama and Ishigo said Saturday's starting pitchers will be a game-time decision.

The game will be preceded by the Division II final between Farrington and Radford at 3 p.m.