D'Asha Saiki and the Punahou Buffanblu takes on Shaylann Grace and the Saint Francis Saints Friday afternoon. ScoringLive photo illustration

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The stakes of Friday's Interscholastic League of Honolulu softball game are clear cut for the sixth-ranked Punahou softball team: win and you're in.

The Buffanblu (12-2) can clinch one of the ILH's three Division I berths in next month's DataHouse State Championships with a win over No. 8 Saint Francis (10-4) in the finale of the 16-game first round.

A second win over the Saints this season would extend Punahou's win streak to a state-best 13 games and also lock up the top seed in the single-elimination tournament second round. A loss, however, coupled with an Iolani win over Maryknoll, would leave the Raiders and Buffanblu with identical 13-3 records and force a playoff for the first-round title.

"It's kind of exciting that the ILH is coming down to the last game like this," Punahou coach David "Boy" Eldredge said. "I know Iolani has a tough one against Maryknoll, (but) hopefully we can just take care of business and not worry about what's going on at Sand Island."

The Buffanblu have proven to be a prolific offense, averaging more than 11 runs per game. They have scored double-digit runs in a game eight times this year, but have also shown the ability to win close games. They are 4-1 in games decided by one run this year, most recently coming from a two-run deficit Wednesday to edge Kamehameha, 3-2.

"(Kamehameha) pitched well. Velocity-wise it wasn't something we haven't seen before, but she (Warriors' starting pitcher Reece Mokuau) was hitting her spots and kept us off balance and did a good job on that, so first off I'll take my hat off to them," said Eldredge, who led Punahou to the D1 state final last season. "We'll spend (Thursday) on adjusting some swings. I told the girls even before the game that we started to swing up a little bit, but hopefully we'll be able to make some adjustments in practice and we'll see."

Another one of those one-run victories came against Saint Francis on March 20, in their only other meeting this season. The Saints built a 6-0 lead through the top of the fifth inning, but the Buffanblu rallied with seven runs in the bottom of the frame and held on for the final six outs.

"Saint Francis always plays us tough. For as long as I've been coaching we've always had close games with them. We lost a couple to them last year and I think they play with a little chip on their shoulder. Earlier in the year they wanted to show that they were the top D1 program in the state, not a D2, but I think that's their incentive with us." Eldredge said, drawing reference to a failed mid-season petition by the Saints to move up from D2 — where they won their first state championship last year — to D1.

The Saints can't help but reflect upon the Punahou loss three weeks ago with regret.

"That stung a little bit. We had opportunities," said Saint Francis coach Randy Langsi, whose team has already claimed the ILH's lone spot in the D2 state tournament. "We lost that opportunity. My hats off to (the Buffanblu), they had a good comeback, (but) that was kind of a wake-up call for us. It's a credit to my team that regardless of our status as far as division, we take every game serious so we're definitely looking to have a better game this time. They need this to clinch a state tournament berth, we're using the last game as motivation to compete for (Friday)."

While all seven D1 teams will take part in a single-elimination tournament next week, Saint Francis will have 18 days between its ILH finale against Damien Thursday and the first round of the D2 state tournament on May 1.

When we get past this week and into the postseason, our mindset has to be ready to compete so we're using this as motivation to beat Punahou," Langsi said. "D2, D1 — whatever — we just want to be the best team, finish as high as we can and be extremely competitive no matter who we play until the very end. We're not looking at it like we're already in states. We're just taking each game as competitively as possible."

The Saints enter Friday's matchup having won six of their last seven contests and having scored 10-or-more runs in five of those victories.

Both teams are closing out busy weeks. Saint Francis will be playing its third game in a five-day stretch — their fourth in seven days — while Punahou will be taking the field for a fourth time this week, which included three games in as many days against Sacred Hearts (Monday), PAC-5 (Tuesday) and Kamehameha (Wednesday).

"It's tough because we haven't been used to it, but I don't want make a bigger issue than it has to be because number one, that's how you play in preseason, where you'll play four short games in two days in these tournaments, and the other thing — which we addressed to the girls, too — is that hopefully it prepares us for the state tournament because we'll play three or four days in a row there, so we try to use it as a preparation thing," Eldredge said.

While both teams have scored their share of runs, they have used different formulas in the circle this season.

The Buffanblu have predominantly turned to junior Ashanti Martinez (9-2, 3.49 ERA) to handle the majority of the pitching duties. She has logged 78 1/3 innings (third most in D1 statewide) and is tied for the second most wins with Lahainaluna's Seraya Casco — one behind Roosevelt's Jaeda Cabunoc.

Meanwhile, the Saints have split the workload between senior Sierrah Kupihea (4-1, 5.87), junior Shaylann Grace (4-1, 5.43) and freshman Sherreigh Nakoa-Chung (1-0, 3.84). Kupihea was a first team All-Hawaii selection last season, Grace transferred from Konawaena in the offseason and Nakoa-Chung has recorded two saves this year. Furthermore, senior Kailee Mahelona can take the ball for Langsi.

"We have four pitchers. They're all different and we can get real creative with them," he said. "We're still trying to find our rhythm with our pitchers, but we can use one for seven innings if we want, we can use two — it's an advantage for us because we know we're not going to be seeded (at states and receive a first-round bye), so we're gonna have that extra game and we want to have those pitchers prepared. That's the way we look at it."

Eldredge said he draws upon his days coaching baseball for how to prepare for a number of different scenarios.

"In baseball you kind of do that all the time where you know who the starting pitcher is gonna be, you kind of know who they got in the bullpen, so going in you prepare for all of them," he said. "As long as you know somewhat their velocity and what their strengths are, but the key is as soon as they make that switch, our girls have to be ready to go. It'll be a challenge, but it'll be fun."

First pitch between the Saints and Buffanblu is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Ala Wai Community Park.