Rather than wearing down toward the end of an arduous stretch, the University of Hawaii softball team continued to gather strength heading into the Big West season.
The Rainbow Wahine extended their winning streak to six and closed the nonconference schedule with a 4-1 victory over Purdue on Saturday in the finale of the Hawaii Pacific Health Rainbow Wahine Classic. UH claimed the tournament title with a 6-1 mark entering a nearly two-week break before the start of conference play.
“Playing two weeks straight, I haven’t really done that ever in my life,” UH third baseman Nicole Lopez said after the Wahine completed a run of 19 games in 16 days. “So these (next) two weeks … should be a good break for us to work on stuff we need to work on, give our bodies a break and just recover.”
UH (21-10) opens the Big West season on March 31 against UC Davis riding its longest winning streak of the season and with its best nonconference record since starting the 2013 season at 22-7.
Following a loss to Seattle on March 5, UH went 13-2 while outscoring its opponents 62-13 with the Wahine pitching staff spinning six shutouts in that span.
“With all the different teams that came in here I thought we did a pretty good job of getting our hitting shoes on, (and) pitchers really established themselves,” UH coach Bob Coolen said.
“If we go into the (conference) season and start playing well and believe like we did in our last 15 games, it will be an exciting Big West.”
UH junior Brittany Hitchcock struck out seven and held the Boilermakers (10-21) to four hits in winning her fifth straight start and was named the tournament’s most outstanding pitcher. In 28 innings last week, Hitchcock allowed just two runs on 13 hits and struck out 31 while walking none and the Wahine posted a team earned-run average of 0.74.
“Twenty (wins) is always a good preseason mark and this last week we kind of lost track of the numbers,” Hitchcock said. “We were just going for one game at a time … and looking back it’s good to know that we passed that mark and we didn’t focus too much on it.”
Lopez claimed MVP honors after launching her team-leading seventh home run of the season to close the week hitting .550 for the tournament and a team-best .365 overall.
“I had several coaches come up to me, ‘Your third baseman is amazing,’” Coolen said. “For the last three weeks everybody has been commenting. … She had a great summer and now she’s reaping the benefits of all that.”
Lopez’s two-run shot in the third inning on Saturday was UH’s 25th home run of the season, matching the team’s total of last year. The Wahine hit .312 as a team over the past seven games and catcher Heather Cameron (.389), left fielder Jordian Hicks (.385) joined Lopez and Hitchcock on the all-tournament team.
“I kind of wish in a way that we could keep playing, just because we are on a roll,” Hitchcock said, “but it’s a good place to end, winning this tournament.”
At Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium
Purdue (10-21) 000 000 1 — 1 4 0
Hawaii (21-10) 022 000 x — 4 9 1
Maddie Damon and Alexa Binckes. Brittany Hitchcock and Callee Heen. W—Hitchcock. L—Damon.
Leading hitters—Purdue: Brooke Perry 2B, RBI. Hawaii: Sarah Muzik, 2-3, 3B; Nicole Lopez, HR, 2 RBIs; Heather Cameron, RBI.
Saturday
UConn 5, Harvard 4 (8 innings)
Marist 4, Purdue 1
