HHSAA Baseball
Mililani uses 'Manoa magic' to deny PAC-5, walks off with first state baseball crown


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
May 10, 2026, 1:12am

  

Sat, May 9, 2026 @ [ 7:00 pm ]

PAC-5

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Mililani

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FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
PAC-5 0 000000041
Mililani 0 0 00001170

W: Ezra Ugale    L: Colten Amai Nakagawa

MIL: Koa Marzo Jr. 1-3 rbi; Ezra Ugale 7.0 IP 0 ER 4 K
P5: Noah Keitzer 2-3; Colten Amai Nakagawa 6.0 IP 0 ER 5 K




MANOA — Mililani borrowed some Manoa magic Saturday night. 

Koa Marzo, Jr. hit a chopper over the head of the third baseman to score Jake Nishimoto for the game-winning run to help Mililani walk off with a 1-0 win over PAC-5 in the title game of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Division I State Championships. 

A crowd of 1,250 fans at Les Murakami Stadium saw the Trojans complete the year with a 16-2 record, capped off their first state title in program history. They did so at the expense of the Wolfpack, who finished 12-5 on the year, one win short of their first state crown. 

Mililani made its 28th all-time appearance in the Division I state tournament this week and finally captured the ultimate prize in its 81st game ever played in states.

"It's a great feeling. I mean, just watching the boys celebrate and trust in our process and what we do and then just coming out and executing and, you know, that's the world right there," Trojans coach Mark Hirayama said. 

Hirayama, who took over the program in 2009, is 27-16-1 all-time in state tournament games. 

Mililani was 0-3 in state championships games before Saturday. It lost to three teams from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu in title games — all since 2013 and all of them under Hirayama. 

The Trojans lost to Mid-Pacific and Saint Louis in 2013 and 2014, respectively, and fell to Punahou most recently in 2019. 

2026 Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Baseball State Championships All-Tournament Team
(as selected by the HHSAA and media) 

Division I

Alika Ahu, PAC-5
Austen Ahu, PAC-5
Colten Amai Nakagawa, PAC-5
Logen Doran, Waiakea
Zayne Hookala, Mililani
Knox Marzo, Mililani
Koa Marzo, Mililani
Jonah Parker, Mililani
Kaikea Patoc-Young, Kamehameha
Taye Marxen, Mililani (Catcher)

Most Outstanding Player: Ezra Ugale, Mililani

"With these guys it's a different vibe. They truly enjoy each other and we talk about playing for each other and how everybody's important on this team and they bought in to that and good things happened," Hirayama said. 

Hirayama's squad is also the first team from the Oahu Interscholastic Association to win the Division I state baseball crown since Campbell in 2015. 

"This is a tough tournament. You need a little bit of luck. If you don't have a bye the first day, you gotta find four pitchers that are going to get the job done and that's tough, and then you need the ball to bounce your way a little bit," Hirayama reflected. 

As was the case in Mililani's one-run win over Kamehameha in Friday's semifinal round — when senior left-hander Zayne Hookala threw a complete-game six-hitter — it was fueled by another gem of a pitching performance Saturday. 

Ezra Ugale scattered four hits and two walks with four strikeouts. It was both his first complete game and longest outing of his three-year varsity career. 

"He's been lights out all year," Hirayama said of the 5-foot-10 Ugale, who improved to 5-0 and lowered his earned run average of 0.66 on the year. 

Ugale served as a reserve infielder during both his freshman and sophomore seasons, when he backed up now-University of Oregon freshman Malosi Mataafa-Alferos. Ugale logged only 3 1/3 innings pitched over four appearances — all of them in relief — a year ago. 

"He's been waiting for his opportunities, especially at shortstop, playing behind Malosi for a couple years and I told him before the game that, ‘This game's going to put you on the map.' He's got good stuff and he competes and hopefully somebody will give him a chance," Hirayama said. 

Ugale registered 61 of his 93 total pitches for strikes and threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 29 batters he faced. He induced 11 ground-ball outs and five fly-ball outs to overcome two hit batsmen. Ugale stranded eight PAC-5 runners on base, three in scoring position. 

The Wolfpack only managed to get five runners past first base and just a single one to reach third base. 

"It was just another day, you know? I was just competing to the best of my abilities and the Lord was with me every pitch," said Ugale, who was selected as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.  

Only three PAC-5 hitters recorded a hit off of Ugale. Noah Keitzer (2 for 3) accounted for half of his team's hits. Ugale held leadoff batter Alika Ahu, who was 6 for 11 at the plate in PAC-5's first three state tournament games, to an 0-for-4 night.

"I was pretty much going right at them with fastballs and struggling to get the curve over a little bit, but yeah, I was just going right at them with fastballs," Ugale said. 

It was far from Ugale's most overpowering performance — he struck out 10 in a win over Waianae in late March, which was also his previous longest outing of his career, and also had a pair of seven-strikeout games this season — but it was definitely his most effective effort all spring. 

"We've always been about pitching and defense winning championships and good pitching's going to beat good hitting most of the time," Hirayama said.

Ugale and Wolfpack ace Colten Amai Nakagawa were engaged in a old fashioned pitchers' duel all night. Amai Nakagawa, a senior lefty signed with the University of Hawaii, threw 104 pitches — 66 of them for strikes — over six innings of work. He walked two and gave up seven hits, all singles, and struck out seven batters. 

"Colten's going to be a good one; UH is getting a good one," Hirayama said. "He threw everything for strikes because he's got a little bit of (velocity) and he's got good command, so hats off to him because he made the game close."

Amai Nakagawa made his second start of the state tournament. He logged 4 2/3 innings of four-hit ball with eight strikeouts in Wednesday's first-round win over Kaiser. 

The lone run the Trojans scored was unearned against Amai Nakagawa, who was the losing pitcher for the first time all year. He finished the season with a 5-1 record, a strikeout-to-walk rate of 62-to-16 over 45 innings pitched and an ERA of 0.94. 

Mililani left runners on base in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings, but finally manufactured a run in the bottom of the seventh. 

After Ugale set the Wolfpack down in order in the top half of the inning, pinch hitter Kaiden Ibara led off the final frame with a ground ball to the left side of the PAC-5 infield. The ball was fielded by Keitzer at third base, but the throw was short-armed and bounced in front of first baseman Keaka Bennett, who was unable to field it cleanly. The throwing error allowed Ibara to reach base, but he was lifted for pinch runner Jake Nishimoto. 

The next batter, Ugale, laid down a perfectly-placed bunt between Amai Nakagawa, Bennett and second baseman Colton Gallano, which the Wolfpack also failed to field cleanly. Amai Nakagawa and Gallano collided while attempting to pick up the bunt, but neither was able to make a play on Ugale, who earned a single with his handling of the bat. 

Ugale credited assistant coach Jared Seminara to helping him fine-tune his bunt execution over the years. 

"I saw a fastball out and during practice we work on it, me and coach (Seminara) all the time, and it just paid off," Ugale said. 

Mililani's ninth batter, Kameron Pongasi, then put down another bunt, which Bennett was able to field cleanly. Bennett tried to cut down the lead runner, but his throw to third was late to load the bases for the Trojans, who turned over the lineup to Marzo at the top of the lineup. 

On the very first pitch he saw from Amai Nakagawa, Marzo hit a chopper to the left side that took a big bounce off of the turf and over Keitzer at third to score Nishimoto easily from third and ignite Mililani's celebration. 

"It was a curveball in. I just sat there and sat there a little bit and made sure I put the barrel to the ball," Marzo said. 

"I just had to clear my mind. I just had to go up there and just hit the ball and put it in play, help out my boys and bring them in. I didn't want to do nothing too big and I just wanted to put the ball in play," added Marzo, a senior centerfielder who is also signed to play for the hometown Rainbow Warriors next year. 

Marzo's Baltimore chop extended his hitting streak to eight games. He played in all 18 games this season and reached base safely in all but two of them. Marzo closed out his senior season with a .425 batting average. His 18 runs scored and 15 runs batted in both are team-high marks. 

"I love that kid, man. He's been doing it all year, but he really showed up today. He just showed up for us and pushed through it and we came out on top," Ugale said. 

It was a storybook-like end to the night for Marzo, who had to be helped off the field in the bottom of the first when he jammed his right shoulder into Keitzer's lower body on a head-first dive while trying to beat out a throw. 

"I dove and then I think I just ran into that guy's knee and then my shoulder just popped and then when I was on the ground I just popped it back in and everything was just numb," Marzo said. 

While he was still down on the turf, Marzo was tended to by athletic trainers. Eventually he walked off under his own power, but appeared to be in excruciating pain while being evaluated in the third-base dugout. When the Wolfpack got the third out, however, Marzo emerged from the dugout and made a few tosses to a teammate under the supervision of the team trainer. Marzo then fired a throw from about 15 feet away into the padding between the dugout and the bullpen before he let out an exuberant yell as he ran out to his position in center. 

"I didn't want to leave the game, I didn't want to leave my boys. I mean, I know they always believe in me to be out there and I helped them out, so I wasn't going to leave either way and I made sure of that," Marzo said. 

Despite seeing his leadoff batter writhing in pain between innings, Hirayama was just as sure as Marzo that he would continue playing. 

"I'm not really sure what happened on that dive, but he wasn't coming out. I mean, as much as he was hurting, he wasn't going to come out and that's just the character and he how hard he just competes. He just loves the game and works hard," Hirayama said. 

As far as Marzo was concerned, a bit of pain was well worth the legacy of a state championship. 

"I know our boys wanted this, our coaches wanted this, everybody wanted this and it just feels good to secure the win and get the first state champs for this team," Marzo said. 

Amai Nakagawa struck out the side in the second inning, then faced just two more than the minimum amount of batters from the third through fifth innings. Mililani sandwiched a couple of hits around a fielder's choice in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Amai Nakagawa was able to work out of the jam by getting designated hitter Xavier Sawa to strikeout looking for the third out. 

Hirayama cited some of the conversations he's had with Spectrum OC16 play-by-play announcer Felipe Ojastro with regard to the team's perpetually low batting average over the years. 

"Felipe always talks about it being like .200, but, I always tell them, ‘Hey, we only need one more run than they get,' " Hirayama laughed, "but it comes down to execution and details and things we preach to these guys every day, as far as taking care of the details and doing the little things. Nowadays, kids don't want to do the little things, they want everything big, but I tell our guys, ‘Put a bunch of little things together and it's going to be make a big difference in the end.' "

PAC-5 coach Reyn Sugai and his crew felt the opposite end of the spectrum after the Trojans walked off to conclude a thrilling championship game. 

"You can't ask for a better state championship game than that, you know? I told the kids you absolutely cannot regret anything. You cannot look at this game and be like, ‘what if?,' or ‘what if I made that play?,' or ‘if we got that hit … ' you know?," said the third-year Wolfpack coach. 

Sugai's squad was trying to become the third different team from the ILH to win the D1 state title in the last four years. 

"I told them just to lay it all out on the table (because) we got nothing left. When you walk off this field, there's nothing more that you can do and sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way, right? Sometimes you don't get a certain call, right? Things happen and I mean, what this team has done is just absolutely special and I told them it's not about necessarily the impact that happened this year, but it's the impact that's going to happen down the line."

PAC-5's magical season, which included a runner-up finish to Kamehameha in the ultra-competitive ILH, came to a crushing end in front of a sea of supporters donned in black and orange in both the lower and upper levels at Murakami Stadium. 

Sugai, a University Laboratory School graduate and former player for PAC-5, expressed his appreciation for the overwhelming amount of support he and the team have received from both near and far. 

"There's guys texting me from the 80's … people are so proud of have played for PAC-5, which, I don't even know if anybody has said in, I don't know, the last decade or so and I think what this team did, even though we came up short today, is just nothing short of an amazing story and an amazing run. It sucks right now, but I think we'll look back at this one day and it's going to be something that we're all very grateful for," Sugai said. 

PAC-5 only prior appearance in a state championship game came in the 2011 Division II state final, which it lost to Kauai. 

Mililani is now 41-39-1 all-time in state tournament games. Saturday's crowning moment for the baseball team came some 24 hours after the school's softball team captured its third consecutive D1 state championship by virtue of its 9-3 win over Moanalua Friday over at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium. 

Campbell was the last school to win both diamond sports state titles in the same season back in 2015. 

ScoringLive reporter Stacy Kaneshiro contributed to this report.


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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