Miles Higa's single down the left-field line brought home Michael Egami from second base with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning last night to lift Moanalua to a 3-2 victory over Mililani in the first round of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Baseball Division I State Championships.

Na Menehune, the O'ahu Interscholastic Association's third-place team, improved to 12-4 in the regular and postseason and will face No. 2 seed and Interscholastic League of Honolulu champ 'Iolani (19-4) in today's 4:30 p.m. quarterfinal at Les Murakami Stadium.

Egami led off the bottom of the seventh with a double to left, setting up Higa's line shot on a 2-2 fastball. Trojans starter Joey Aquino, who had struck out Higa in the fifth inning, was replaced after Egami's hit.

"(Egami) did a good job getting to second, and I'm glad they took out Aquino, because he pitched a great game," said Higa, a sophomore left fielder. "A lot of my hits this season were with two strikes, and (the last pitch) was a fastball right down the middle."

Higa's hit capped a tight game that had several shifts in momentum.

Moanalua took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Tim Arakawa's inside-the-park home run that bounced over the sliding right fielder and rolled all the way to the wall. Mililani (9-8) then went up, 2-1, in the sixth after Tanner Nakasone's RBI single and Travis Goto's sacrifice fly.

But Na Menehune tied it in the bottom half after a walk, infield single and two errors.

MILILANI (9-8) 000 002 0—2 5 3

MOANALUA (12-4) 100 001 1—3 6 1

Joseph Aquino, Travis Inouye (7) and Jacob Matsukawa. Zachary Manago, Jacob Fukuyama (6) and Chris Liu-Sagid. W — Fukuyama. L — Aquino.

Leading hitters — Mililani: Jordan Queja double; Ray Sugihara double. Moanalua: Miles Higa 2-4; Regan Lum 2-2; Michael Egami double; Tim Arakawa homer.