It’s not pretty, but it’s a win

LAS CRUCES, N.M. » Rain delayed Hawaii’s Western Athletic Conference tournament game for nearly 4 hours on Thursday.

The clouds forced Hawaii coach Bob Coolen to get creative in finding ways to get his team ready.

"We had to get out of the hotel," Coolen said. "We came here at 1 p.m. We just needed to get out of the hotel. We knew it was going to be a long day, but if there was going to be more delays, I would rather be outside than inside."

Top-seeded Hawaii responded with a 5-1 victory over No. 4 San Jose State at the New Mexico State University Softball Complex.

"It was nice to get the first win because I think everyone had some nerves," said Hawaii pitcher Stephanie Ricketts, who improved to 28-3 in the circle. The Wahine face second-seeded Brigham Young (41-13) today in a winners bracket game scheduled for 10 a.m. Hawaii time. The Cougars advanced with a 6-1 win over Louisiana Tech on Thursday. UH and BYU split a doubleheader on April 7 in a snow-shortened series in Provo, Utah. UH won the first game 1-0, with BYU claiming the second 7-3. The winner of today’s matchup moves on to Saturday’s championship round. The loser faces an elimination game today at 3 p.m.

BYU right fielder Delaney Willard, the WAC Player of the Year, drove in four runs in the Cougars’ win over LaTech on Thursday.

"I hope that we are on schedule and we are set for that," Coolen said. "If we are delayed again, I don’t know what we will do."

Coolen said the delay led to an uncharacteristic five hits by his offense and three errors in the field.

Yet the Rainbow Wahine still found a way to beat a San Jose State team that stole a win against them during the regular season with pitcher Amanda Pridmore in the circle.

"I thought the game was just a lot of manufactured runs," Coolen said. "We weren’t as aggressive because we knew that they had beaten us with Pridmore."

Ricketts outlasted Pridmore, allowing three hits in seven innings, striking out two and walking four.

Once on the field, Hawaii didn’t take long to gain the upper hand, scoring on Makani Duhaylonsod-Kaleimamahu’s sacrifice fly in the first.

The Rainbow Wahine took control of the game with three runs in the third inning to go up 4-1. Hawaii scored a fifth run in the fifth inning without recording a hit. Kayla Wartner reached on a walk, moved to second when Pridmore hit Sarah Robinson and scored on an error.

"The more runs the better because we came out with a slow start," Coolen said.

SJSU second baseman Cheryl Freitas couldn’t handle Jessica Iwata’s infield hit and two Hawaii runs came across to make it 3-1 with one out.

Dara Pagaduan scored on a chop single through the left side by Leisha Li‘ili‘i to make it 4-1 after the Rainbow Wahine loaded the bases with Kelly Majam and Pagaduan singles and a Wartner walk.

San Jose State tied the game at 1-1 on Markesha Collins’ two-out solo home run in the third.

"It was an inside pitch and (Collins) hit it out," Ricketts said. "Those things happen. Their team has seen me pitch before, so it didn’t rattle me too much."

The Spartans put runners in scoring position in the first two innings, but Ricketts kept them off the scoreboard.

"We knew they were going to get runners on base," Ricketts said. "They are a good hitting team and they are good at reading pitches. Even when they were scoring, we knew we would score, so I didn’t feel any pressure."

Pagaduan, the Hawaii second baseman, had two errors in the first four innings. She made up for her error in the fourth by snaring a line drive off the bat of BranDee Garcia and doubling up Britney Helm at first.

"That was totally uncharacteristic," Coolen said of the sloppy defense. "We had some walks and got behind hitters. It was just a matter of coming up with pitches when we needed it. We were put in some holes, but we found a way out of those holes."