They came and they went at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium on Sunday … and some of them came back.

University of Hawaii baseball fans stopped by after the Rainbows’ loss to Wichita State to get a glimpse of the undefeated UH softball team in action in the Bank of Hawaii Invitational. They helped build a crowd of more than 1,000 that filled the stands for UH’s win over Radford, and some left and came back for the championship game against Florida State. Closer to 1,200 had jammed the joint for the game against the Seminoles the previous night.

Regardless of when they came and why, they all saw the Wahine win. They now have 17 victories to begin the season.

And now the streak should be legit to any remaining skeptics. "Well, who have they played?" When someone asks that, there is now an impressive answer. A ranked, previously undefeated answer — Florida State.

For the Wahine themselves, it doesn’t matter what others think.

"Just for our sake that as the teams get better we get better, that helps us," said senior pitcher Stephanie Ricketts, who tossed a one-hitter at Florida State for the championship. "But as for what anyone else thinks, we don’t worry about that."

Victories of 2-1 and 1-0 over the No. 20 team in the nation (Hawaii is at No. 22) might actually resonate more than bully ball blowouts. The Wahine are showing themselves to be a find-a-way-to-win team when things are tough.

"Stephanie is just lights out right now," coach Bob Coolen said. "And what (the team is) doing is they have all bought into doing their little roles to make the game theirs. In their mind, they’ve won the game before they even go on the field. They’re just going out there to see what the score will be."

Ricketts didn’t go as far as her coach in verbalizing the team’s confidence level.

"I honestly think we’re really not looking at staying unbeaten," said Ricketts, one of the key members of the 2010 College World Series team. "We’re playing in the moment and having fun. There’s no doubt from No. 1 through No. 9 and the bench support may have made the most difference."

And defense. A catch at the wall in left by Alex Aguirre and a double play involving first baseman Makani Duhaylonsod-Kaleimamahu and catcher Kayla Wartner in the early innings (paired, of course, with Ricketts’ pitching) allowed Hawaii to win a game in which it struck out 13 times.

It was a nice tonic for UH fans who’d come from Les Murakami Stadium and had hoped for a sweep of Wichita State. The Rainbows were frustrating on Sunday, as the first batter reached base every inning from the fifth on, but none crossed home in the 4-2 loss. Two Wichita State double plays were big in ending UH’s winning streak at eight games.

Regardless, three out of four against the Shockers is great, and the baseball team’s massive makeover is way ahead of schedule with a 9-5 record. And it looks like the Rainbows have yet another strong young arm in freshman lefty Lawrence Chew.

Overall, it was a fine week for UH on both diamonds. It’s still a bit early to say fans can count on seasons as excellent as 2010, when the Wahine went to Oklahoma City and the Rainbows to the NCAA regionals. But the potential is there.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.