Last week, Hawaii softball coach Bob Coolen noted a deficit in the home run column.
The Rainbow Wahine flipped the totals in their favor over a 10-game surge and three homers on Friday powered UH to an 8-1 win over Toledo to improve to 2-1 in the Outrigger Spring Fling Tournament.
Through 12 games, UH opponents had launched 16 homers to 12 for the Wahine. In 10 games since, UH has pounded out 10 while allowing two.
“It’s a matter of them having better swings and being more efficient rather than being so hyped up and just missing,” Coolen said. “They’re going to get extension, which is what we preach, and they’re a lot more relaxed, because they’re seeing (more) pitching.”
The Spring Fling continues with four games today with UH scheduled to face Marist at 4 p.m. The Wahine and Red Foxes meet again at 2 p.m. Sunday in the finale.
Nicole Lopez opened the scoring on Friday with a two-run homer to center field in the bottom of the first and Heather Morales followed with a line drive to center to give UH right-hander Dana Thomsen a 3-0 lead.
The Wahine pulled away in the fifth on senior Ulu Matagiese’s first homer of the season, a three-run blast to left, and UH (13-9) picked up its fourth win over Toledo (9-16) in the past week.
Matagiese entered the game 1-for-11 this season and grounded out and lined out to end the first and third innings. She came up with two out again in the fifth and this time got around on a pitch and hammered her seventh career homer.
A night after being held to two hits in a 1-0 loss to Utah, seven UH players posted at least two hits and the Wahine peppered Toledo pitching for a season-high 17 hits, the most since posting 20 in a win over San Jose State on Feb. 15, 2013.
Lopez momentarily took the team home run lead when she launched her fifth of the season, matching her total of her freshman year. But Morales matched her previous single-season high set as a sophomore in 2015 with her fifth homer. She came about a foot away from moving ahead in the sixth when her liner to left hit near the top of the fence for a double.
Thomsen made her second start against Toledo in four days and struck out nine while holding the Rockets to four hits.
Thomsen struck out five in a row in the fourth and fifth innings, retired 13 of the last 14 batters she faced and finished with at least nine strikeouts for the fourth time in her last six appearances.
“I’m definitely not going out shaking any more,” Thomsen said. “The first couple starts I was very nervous. I could tell I was jittery, I didn’t know what to throw. But now it’s like I’m settling in.
“I feel as a whole our team is starting to come full circle and we’re really working together.”
At Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium
>> Toledo (9-16) 001 000 0 — 1 4 1
>> Hawaii (13-9) 300 032 x — 8 17 0
Kailey Minarchick, Heather Webb (6) and Ashley Maynard. Dana Thomsen and Heather Cameron. W—Thomsen. L—Minarchick.
Leading hItters—Toledo: Ashley Rausch. 2-2, 2B RBI.
Hawaii: Danielle Garcielita, 2-4; Sarah Muzik, 2-4; Nicole Lopez, 3-4, HR, 2 RBIs; Heather Morales, 2-4, 2B, HR; Callee Heen, 2-4, RBI; Angelique Ramos, 2-2; Cameron, 2-3, RBI; Ulu Matagiese, HR, 2 RBIs.
HAWAII SPRING FLING
FRIDAY
>> Utah 5, Charleston Southern 1
>> Toledo 5, Marist 3
TODAY
>> Charleston Southern vs. Toledo, 10 a.m.
>> Utah vs. Toledo, noon
>> Charleston Southern vs. Marist, 2 p.m.
>> Marist vs. Hawaii, 4 p.m.
SUNDAY
>> Marist vs. Hawaii, 2 p.m.
