Honokaa’s softball team wasn’t executing its game plan against Kohala ace Mikayla Kekoa until Shaela Jardine hit a home run in the fifth inning to finally put the Dragons on the scoreboard.
An inning later, everything clicked and Honokaa started creating havoc on its home field.
The Dragons scored seven runs in the sixth and rallied from a pair of four-run deficits to win 8-5, and Honokaa’s season sweep of the Cowgirls keeps it in the running for the No. 2 seed in the BIIF Division II playoffs.
Everything started to go right, coach Virgil Agustin said, “once the girls knew what they were doing wrong.” Trying to utilize small-ball, Agustin said the “girls were hanging on to the bats too tight.”
Honokaa (8-4) has won four in a row to move a game behind Kohala (9-3) in second place.
Alexis Martinez hung tough for five innings in the circle, striking out eight to survive seven walks, and with the Dragons trailing 5-1 she coaxed a walk to begin the sixth.
Honokaa loaded the bases on a hit batter and Jardine’s single, Waiehu Kauahi-Raquel was hit to bring in the first run and Anna Kim’s grounder made it 5-3.
The biggest sequence of the game came with Natasha Molina, the next batter, at the plate. Consecutive errors brought home the tying runs, and Molina’s triple put Honokaa in front. Molina, who finished with three hits, scored on a grounder, and Ceelyn Gali-Lucero tacked on a run-scoring single.
“Once we got on base, we started creating a lot of (Kohala) errors,” Agustin said.
The Cowgirls were cruising and ahead 4-0 until Jardine homered for the second consecutive game.
The game was scoreless until Kohala used three walks, an error and singles by Laila Caravalho, Danyka Cazimero-Roxburgh and Harley Yamasaki to score four times in the fifth.
In an 114-pitch effort, Martinez allowed four hits and just one earned run before Destynee Carvalho worked the final two innings, allowing an unearned run in the sixth, and two hits and two walks with a strikeout to earn the victory.
“We needed (Alexis) to go as far as she could,” Agustin said. “We needed her to hold it down until (Destynee) came in.”
In six innings, Kekoa walked two, hit three, struck out seven and allowed eight hits.
Cazimero-Roxburgh collected two hits for Kohala, which still has to host unbeaten Kamehameha on Thursday and would lose a head-to-head tiebreaker if it ties the Dragons for second. Honokaa hosts Kealakehe on Wednesday.
• Kamehameha 8, Konawaena 0: Senior Brooke Baptiste continued her stellar senior season in the circle, striking out 15 in a two-hit shutout at Walter Victor Stadium, and the Warriors ran their record to 11-0.
Baptiste walked one, and at the plate she accounted for three of Kamehameha’s 12 hits. Leiloa Bustamante hit a two-run home run and finished 2 for 3 with three RBIs, and Kawai Kauahi-Raquel and Kealohi Grace each had two hits and two runs batted in.
Along with coming up with both of her team’s hits, Andi Uemura pitched six innings for the Wildcats (6-7) and was charged with 12 hits and five earned runs. The senior walked three and struck out three.
Konawaena is locked into the fourth seed in the Division II playoffs. Kamehameha can clinch the top seed Wednesday with a win at Keaau.