Matadors hang on at UH

Senior weekend got off to a quiet start for the University of Hawaii softball team, with Cal State Northridge scoring the first 11 runs of Friday’s series opener.

The Rainbow Wahine finally made a racket in the late innings, but their power surge still left them with an 11-6 loss to the Matadors.

Cal State Northridge struck for four runs in the top of the first inning and led 9-0 by the time UH came to bat in the third. The gap grew to 11-0 in the fifth.

UH avoided an early exit when Kayla Wartner and Sarina Jaramillo hit two-run homers in the bottom of the fifth to extend the game. Lindsey Willmon added a solo homer in the seventh, but the chasm was just too wide and the Wahine dropped to 20-25 overall and 5-11 in Big West play.

"When you give up crooked numbers in the first, second and third innings, you’re not going to stay in the ballgame," UH coach Bob Coolen said. "Our team is not one to let lie; they realize they can come back."

The Rainbow Wahine close the home schedule with a senior day doubleheader on Saturday starting at 2 p.m.

CSUN freshman Taylor Glover didn’t contribute any of the Matadors’ 12 hits on Friday but drove in three runs for Northridge (30-22, 7-9). Pitcher Briana Elder held UH to one hit going into the fifth inning before UH’s five-run outburst in the fifth. Daphne Pofek relieved Elder in the fifth and gave up a homer to Willmon in the seventh but managed to snuff the comeback.

UH freshman Heather Morales struck out four and walked seven in a complete-game effort while taking the loss to drop to 10-10.

CSUN took control by stringing together a walk and three consecutive hits with two out in the top of the first inning to take a 4-0 lead.

CSUN opened the second inning with two infield singles and a double steal, and Glover’s sacrifice fly scored both runners to push the Matadors’ lead to 6-0.

CSUN batted around in the third and scored three more runs with two out, then added two more in the fifth to stretch the lead to 11-0 and move three outs from a run-rule win.

Wartner broke up the shutout with a homer to left-center, but UH was still down to its final strike when Jaramillo hit her second homer of the season to force the game into the sixth.

Kaile Nakao delivered an RBI single later in the inning. But Pofek got out of the inning with two runners on base and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth.

Willmon led of the bottom of the seventh with her 11th home run of the season, but the game ended on a double play and UH lost for the 10th time in its past 11 games.

Briana Elder, Daphne Pofek (5) and Katie Hooper. Heather Morales and Sharla Kliebenstein.

W-Elder. L–Morales.

Leading hitters–CSUN: Carissa Sherman, 2-3, RBI; Madalyne Handy, RBI; Taylor Glover, 3 RBIs; Ariana Wassmer, 2-4, 2B, RBI; Madison Fleming, 2 RBIs; Maylynn Mitchell, 3-4; Taylor Nate, RBI; Crystal Maas, RBI. Hawaii: Kayla Wartner, 2-5, HR, 2 RBIs; Sarina Jaramillo, HR, 2 RBIs; Lindsey Willmon, 2-3, HR; Kaile Nakao, RBI.