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Leisha Li‘ili‘i closed her University of Hawaii softball career as an All-Big West first-team selection for the second consecutive year.
Li‘ili‘i, a senior first baseman/designated hitter, was UH’s lone representative on the all-conference first team. Freshman pitcher Brittany Hitchcock, sophomore first baseman Heather Morales and senior catcher Kayla Wartner were named to the second team. Junior right fielder Keiki Carlos was an honorable mention pick. Hitchcock was also named to the all-freshman team.
Li‘ili‘i repeated as a first-team selection after hitting .325 overall with a team-high 11 home runs and 37 runs batted in. In Big West play, she hit .400 with five homers and 16 RBIs. She earned all-conference honors each of her four years at UH. She was the Western Athletic Conference freshman of the year and made the All-WAC second team in 2012 and was a second-team All-Big West pick as a sophomore.
Morales ended the season as UH’s leading hitter at .331 overall and trailed Li‘ili‘i with 32 RBIs. She also posted a .996 fielding percentage at first base with one error in 256 chances.
Wartner hit .306 and was second on the team with 10 homers. She threw out eight of 13 attempted base stealers.
Hitchcock returned from a redshirt year to go 18-7 with a 2.37 earned-run average, 85 strikeouts against 40 walks and four shutouts. She went 9-2 in conference play with eight complete games in 11 starts.
Carlos spent most of the conference season in the leadoff spot and hit .288 in league games with 13 RBIs and four home runs. She hit .293 overall with a team-high 11 doubles and eight homers.
UH closed the season 32-22 overall and finished third in the conference at 13-8.
CSUN’s Katie Hooper was named Big West Player of the Year and Tairia Flowers was the Coach of the Year after leading the Matadors to the conference title. Long Beach State’s Christina Clermont and UC Riverside’s Chelsea Ponce shared the Pitcher of the Year award. LBSU shortstop Shayna Kimbrough was the Defensive Player of the Year. CSUN’s Zoe Conley was the Freshman Pitcher of the Year and CSUN’s Savannah Horvath and Cal State Fullerton’s Samantha Vandiver were the Co-Freshman Field Players of the Year.