Maryknoll's Lililana Thomas makes contact a pitch against Iolani Tuesday afternoon at Sand Island. CJ Caraang | SL

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SAND ISLAND — Maryknoll's hopes for a second straight league crown are alive and well.

Kahilu McNicoll scattered four hits over 4 1/3 innings and Aloha Akaka belted a walk-off, sixth-inning grand slam to lead No. 8 Maryknoll to a 15-2 win over unranked Iolani before a crowd of about 200 fans at Sand Island State Recreational Park Tuesday afternoon.

The victory gives the Spartans (10-5) the Interscholastic League of Honolulu's second round Division I title and a berth in next week's DataHouse State Championships. It also sets up a showdown at sixth-ranked Punahou — the first round winner — on Thursday for the overall league crown.

"Our goal has always been to peak at the right time. You're going to notice that's the tradition of our team, where we might not do as well, we'll mix it up, back and forth and then all of a sudden, I think the last four games we're playing the best ball we ever played, so it's just an attribute to all the girls. They never give up," Maryknoll coach John Uekawa said.

The Raiders (8-7) came up one win short of their first state tournament appearance since 2016.

McNicoll, a senior right-handed pitcher, notched her second win over Iolani this season to improve to 6-4. She allowed a pair of runs, issued four walks and had four strikeouts.

"I had adrenaline going, but I've been focusing on this game for a long time and I really wanted us to win and I guess you could say we came together as a team," McNicoll said. "I just wanted to help them out so I did my job today."

The Spartans have had their share of highs and lows this season. During a five-shame stretch from mid-March to early-April, they dropped three of five games. In Mid-April they suffered back-to-back losses and sat just two games above .500. However, they have reeled off three straight victories since then, including a one-run win over Kamehameha last Thursday in which they rallied from an 11-4 deficit.

"That gave us momentum at the end and going into this Iolani game," Akaka said. "We struggled against Kamehameha but we got it back and then we knew we had it on Iolani. We started from the beginning of the game with our batting and we just had it."

McNicoll batted 3 for 4 with a double, two RBI and two runs scored. Nohea Hee (2 for 2, double, two walks, two runs), Mahalo Akaka (2 for 4, RBI, two runs) and Baylie Kahele (2 for 4, sac fly, 3 RBI, run) each paired hits for Maryknoll, which posted 13 total hits.

The Spartans loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but came away empty-handed. In the second they struck for four runs on three hits to draw first blood. Logan Carlos pushed across the game's first run after drawing a bases-loaded walk off Iolani starting pitcher Aleia Agbayani. Kanoe Tanigawa followed with an RBI-single before Kahele drove in a pair of runs with a single to deep center fielder.

"All we wanted to do was score first so that we didn't have to come back," Uekawa said.

The Raiders cut the deficit in half in the top of the third, when Agbayani had an RBI-single and Anna Arita scored on a McNicoll wild pitch.

However, Maryknoll batted around in the fourth and scored five more runs on four hits to stretch its lead to 9-2. Sydney Kamakaiwi, Mahalo Akaka and McNicoll had back-to-back-to-back RBI-singles in the frame.

"Our whole lineup can hit, honestly. We have a great hitting team, we just have to put it together for the ending of the season and the postseason since now we're in states, so our hitting is definitely there, we just have to put it all together," McNicoll said.

McNicoll gave way to Aloha Akaka with one out in the top of the fifth. Akaka inherited a pair of base runners, but struck out two of the next three batters she faced to get out of the jam unscathed. Iolani left the bases loaded in the inning and stranded a total of eight runners for the game.

"We've been doing a tandem and we could tell that (McNicoll) was getting a tad tired, so when we took her out, we took her out with, I think, the 6-7-8 batters coming up so we knew what we had to do, when we had to do it and we just made the choice. Sometimes it's hard to make a choice because she can get out of it. But when we look at it, it's for the team," Uekawa said.

Aloha Akaka got the final five outs in the circle and put a bow on the victory in the bottom of the sixth.

Before Iolani could record an out in the sixth, the Spartans scored six runs — highlighted by Akaka's towering grand slam that landed at least 30 feet beyond the fence in left field — to induce the mercy rule.

"I just saw it coming down the middle and I knew I had to hit that and I hit it. I knew it was gone; It felt good," said Aloha Akaka, who picked a nice time to bust out of a slump.

"The last four, five games she wasn't hitting and we had a (designated player) hitting for her, but in practice she was just hitting a lot of line drives and we said we gotta get her in the lineup, so she hasn't batted for at least three, four games, so we inserted her and (early on) she kind of swung at some bad balls, but that was almost a college-type home run," Uekawa said.

Aleia Agbayani batted 2 for 3 with a double and an RBI to lead the Raiders. She allowed 10 earned runs on 12 hits with five walks and four strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings and was tagged with the loss to fall to 6-3 on the season.

"At first we were kind of shaky, but towards the ending of the season we came together as a team, we got on our streak and we've been on it ever since we came back from our trip and I just feel like going into this last game for the ILH championship, it'll help us to win and to push harder," McNicoll said.

In late March Maryknoll traveled to Las Vegas and participated in the Spring Jamboree Tournament. It went 4-1 in the tournament and lost in the title game to Torrance (Calif.) West, 6-5.

"We went to Vegas, when we came back from Vegas it was a different team. They were close when we left, (but) they were closer when we got back," Uekawa said. "It's all about the team and they understand that."

It was the third meeting between the teams this year. Iolani won the first game on March 10 by a score of 10-4 before Maryknoll took the rematch on Apr. 6, 9-5.