After a senior suffered a painful episode on Friday, the growing pains continued for the University of Hawaii softball team’s freshman pitchers on Saturday.

With Rainbow Wahine ace Kaia Parnaby on the bench with a broken nose for Saturday’s doubleheader against Long Beach State, the 49ers pounded out 27 hits, including eight home runs, against UH’s freshmen in sweeping the doubleheader and winning the Big West series.

The 49ers hit four homers in each game, outslugging UH 14-7 in the first game and rolling to an

11-3 victory in the series finale.

The series finale marked the first time UH lost by run rule at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium since a 10-1 defeat to California on March 12, 2009. UH last lost a conference series on April 23, 2011, when Boise State swept the Wahine at home.

No. 14/20 UH’s margin atop the Big West standings shrunk after falling to 38-10 overall and 15-3 in Big West play, with Long Beach State (32-20, 14-7) and idle Pacific (28-22, 12-6) still in chase mode. UH closes the home schedule this week with a three-game series against UC Santa Barbara and ends the regular season with a series at Pacific.

"We’re still in first place," said UH senior Kelly Majam, who homered in her first two at-bats on Saturday to reach 71 in her career.

"Even if we lose the series we’re still in first place. We just have to get our work done the next two series. Next week will be an emotional series because it’s senior weekend, and I think the team will step up because of it."

Parnaby watched Saturday’s games after being hit in the face by a hard chopper on Friday. Her nose was still bleeding a bit a day later, but she anticipates returning to the circle for the UC Santa Barbara series.

"There were so many moments I wanted to grab my cleats and just throw myself on the field," Parnaby said, "but I knew I had to sit back and it was for the best.

"I’m all good and I’ll be back next weekend. I’m not going to miss my senior weekend."

Parnaby had started 40 of UH’s 46 games entering Saturday’s play, and led the nation with 34 wins. Freshman Loie Kesterson started both games on Saturday, Keiki Carlos made a relief appearance in the opener and both endured rough outings.

Kesterson gave up eight runs in 22/3 innings in the opener, six coming on two-out hits.

After giving up an RBI double in the third, Carlos retired seven straight until Long Beach State broke loose for three runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh and posted the highest run total against UH this season.

Kesterson went the distance in the second game as the 49ers hit four more homers. LBSU’s Sarah Carrasco and Nalani St. Germain hit back-to-back homers in both games.

"They leave things hanging on the same plane, I told them that’s not going to work on our level," UH coach Bob Coolen said. "You have to go up and down and you have to have a changeup and they struggled."

Majam hit a leadoff homer in the first inning of the first game and added a three-run shot in the second inning as UH rallied to take a 6-5 lead. But the Wahine couldn’t muster much more after Long Beach State junior Erin Jones-Wesley entered the game.

Jones-Wesley held UH without a hit for her first 42/3 innings of relief and finished with eight strikeouts and six walks. She went 41/3 innings in the second game and got ample run support.

"She’s had some injuries … we aren’t able to use her as much as we’d like to, but she pitched a lot today and did a really nice job and gave us a lot of confidence," Long Beach State coach Kim Sowder said.

UH rallied for three runs in the bottom of the fifth, two scoring on Jazmine Zamora’s single. But the Wahine couldn’t push across another run to extend the game to the sixth.