Hawaii’s Stephanie Ricketts tossed her second straight shutout and the Rainbow Wahine softball team defeated UC Davis 8-0 today to win the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic.
The Rainbow Wahine (5-0) reached the final by beating Southern Utah 5-1 earlier in the day thanks to a sixth-inning grand slam by Melissa Gonzalez.
Against UC Davis, the Wahine scored twice in both the first and second innings in support of Ricketts (3-0), who finished with eight strikeouts and no walks while limiting the Aggies to three singles.
Kelly Majam led off the bottom of the first by drawing her sixth walk of the tournament. Jessica Iwata then doubled into the right-center gap to bring Majam around to score. Iwata moved to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on Jenna Rodriguez’s ground out.
The UH lead grew to 4-0 in the second inning when Jasey Jensen scored form third on a grounder by Alex Aguirre. Sharla Kliebenstein later delivered a two-out RBI single to bring in Aguirre.
UH ended the game in the sixth inning when Kliebenstein hit a three-run homer to center to bring the mercy rule into effect.
In the win over Southern Utah, the Wahine scraped out a single run in the first inning after SUU starter Danielle Axe walked the bases loaded. The Thunderbirds then tied the game in the second on a home run by Haylee Hoch off of Kaia Parnaby.
The score remained tied into the sixth until the Wahine again loaded the bases and Gonzalez hit her second home run of the season with a blast to center.
Parnaby (2-0) struck out seven in a two-hit performance.