HONOLULU — Kapaa softball bats combined with solid pitching on Wednesday to lead the No. 1 seeded team to a 15-1 win over Kailua High School at the 2025 DataHouse Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II softball state championship tournament being played on Oahu.
With the victory, Kapaa, the reigning Central Pacific Bank, Kauai Interscholastic Federation (KIF) champions, advance to face unseeded Pac5 on Thursday at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium. Pac5 earned the advance following a 15-1 upset win over No. 4 seed Lanai High School on Wednesday..
Unseeded Waimea High School, the KIF No. 2 team, pocketed back to back victories, including upsetting No. 3 seed Kamehameha Schools-Hawaii, 14-3 to advance to the tournament’s quarterfinals where the Menehune will face No. 2 seed Pearl City on Thursday.
Kailua ignited the firecracker when its leadoff hitter, Amythest Thomas-Sare walked, and scored off a Runs Batted In (RBI) two-bagger by Caydence Kauahi with two outs.
Kapaa answered with two runs on one hit. Sienna Yamashita, Kapaa’s leadoff hitter walked, stole secondbase, advanced to thirdbase on a wild pitch, and scored on a Charlize Kenney homerun with one out.
The Warriors held Kailua scoreless for the remainder of the five-inning outing that was shortened by the 10-run ruling, and picked up a run in the second inning, nine runs in the third frame, and added three more runs in the fourth frame for the win.
Warrior pitcher Karlee Rose Keale picked up the win on the mound after allowing the Kailua run on two hits through four innings. Keale, who recorded no wild pitches, struck out seven Kailua hitters while walking two. She got help from Anabel Capistran -Nakagoshi who closed with no runs allowed, no hits, and hitting one batter.
Warrior secondbase Kenney marked two homeruns in her three hits recorded, and drove in seven runners to lead the Kapaa lumberyard. Jacie Martinez also tallied three hits with three RBI. Sienna Yamashita scored three time, marked a hit and had two RBI.
The DII championship game is scheduled to play today at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium at the University of Hawaii campus.
