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The University of Hawaii softball team closed its home schedule by splitting a doubleheader with Cal State Northridge on Saturday.
Cal State Northridge right-hander Brianna Elder held the Rainbow Wahine to four hits in the Matadors’ 5-0 win in the first game.
UH freshman Heather Morales earned a complete-game win, Sarina Jaramillo hit a go-ahead home run in the third inning and the Wahine bounced back to win the series finale 7-3 to cap senior day at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
The game marked the final home appearance for UH seniors Jori Jasper, Sharla Kliebenstein, Kaile Nakao and Jazmine Zamora.
UH moved to 21-26 overall and 6-12 in Big West play with the split.
Cal State Northridge (31-23, 8-10) took control in their first two turns at bat in the first game and clinched the series win in Saturday’s first game.
CSUN batted around in the top of the first and took a 3-0 lead with the aid of an error, a walk and three hit batters. Madalyne Handy reached on an error, advanced to third and scored the game’s first run on a wild pitch.
Taylor Glover later came in when Madison Fleming was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. With two out, Leann Lopez was also hit to force in Ariana Wassmer.
The Matadors added two more runs in the second on two-out RBI singles by Katie Hooper and Wassmer.
Elder held UH to two hits through six innings before giving up consecutive singles to start the bottom of the seventh. Elder struck out the next three batters to wrap up her fifth shutout of the season while UH was blanked for the sixth time.
The loss assured UH of its first sub-.500 season since going 28-33 in 2004.
CSUN took a 1-0 lead in the series finale in the top of the second and Elder extended her string of shutout innings to nine.
The Wahine broke through in the third when Kayla Wartner walked, went to third on Keiki Carlos’ double and scored on Leisha Li’ili’i’s sacrifice fly.
With two out in the inning, Jaramillo gave UH its first lead of the series with a two-run homer to left.
Jaramillo came up with the bases loaded in the fifth and grounded into a double play, but Carlos scored on the play to give UH a 4-1 lead. Willmon followed with a line single to right to score Dori Ann Sugai, went to third on an error and scored on a wild pitch.
Morales drove in Carlos with a single down the third-base line in the sixth inning to stretch the lead to 7-1. She gave up a two-our double in the top of the seventh, but closed out the win.
UH closes the season with a series at UC Davis next week.
