Hawaii sophomore Jessica Iwata was named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference softball hitter of the week yesterday for her performance in the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic over the weekend.

The Rainbow Wahine shortstop hit .526 (10-for-19) over five games in the tournament in Las Vegas. She led the team with six home runs and drove in 10 runs.

Iwata homered twice to help UH rally from a 6-1 deficit against Utah in its tournament opener on Friday. Iwata’s two-run homer in the sixth inning cut into the deficit. She then came up in the seventh with UH trailing 7-4 and launched a three-run homer to tie the game before Alex Aguirre hit a game-winning solo shot.

Iwata then hit a two-run homer in the first inning of a 10-4 win over Long Beach State, giving her three homers and seven RBIs in a stretch of three at-bats.

Iwata went 4-for-4 with three solo home runs in a 6-1 win over Stanford on Saturday. It marked the second time in her career that she hit three home runs in a game.

Through 10 games, Iwata is hitting .412 and has seven of Hawaii’s 21 home runs. She also leads the Wahine in hits (14), runs (14), RBIs (14) and slugging percentage (1.059).

San Jose State’s Jennifer Ames was named pitcher of the week.

No. 9 UH (9-1) continues its road trip with a doubleheader at UC Riverside today and plays in the Cathedral City Classic starting Thursday.