Hawaii catcher Rachel Lack homered for the second straight game and the Rainbow Wahine softball team pulled away from Southern Utah in the first game of a doubleheader today in the DeMarini Desert Classic in Henderson, Nev.

UH sophomore Brittany Hitchcock turned in a complete-game performance in UH’s 5-1 win at Stephanie Lynn Craig Park.

Grand Canyon then hit two home runs to send the Wahine to an 8-3 loss in their second game of the day. UH (6-5) faces Utah on Sunday in its final game of the tournament.

Hitchcock held Southern Utah to four hits, struck out four and walked one while improving to 3-3.

Ulu Matagiese drove in Keiki Carlos with UH’s first run in the top of the fourth. Southern Utah tied the game in the bottom of the inning but UH reclaimed the lead with a two-run fifth with Carlos driving in the go-ahead run and Heather Morales following with an RBI single.

Lack capped the scoring with a two-run homer in the top of the seventh and Hitchcock stranded two Thunderbird runners on base in the bottom of the inning to close out the win.

The Wahine took the lead against Grand Canyon on Morales RBI groundout in the bottom of the first. But Grand Canyon (8-1) answered with three runs in the top of the second and broke away in the fourth on Madelyn Dowdle’s three-run homer and Sierra Smith’s solo shot.

Matagiese hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, but GCU’s Kailey Regester held off the Wahine the rest of the way.

Regester gave up six hits, walked five and left 10 UH runners on base. Kanani Aina Cabrales (3-2) surrendered eight runs on 10 hits in four innings in the loss. Freshman Jennifer Iseri threw three innings of shutout relief.