Wahine improve to 3-0 in Paradise Classic

Hawaii pitcher Kaia Parnaby had one rough inning in an otherwise sparkling performance against Missouri-Kansas City on Friday.

The Rainbow Wahine offense made sure that wouldn’t be the difference.

UH fell behind the Kangaroos late in a pitchers duel between Parnaby and Deanna Friese, then rallied for five runs in the bottom of the sixth in a 5-1 win on the second day of the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic.

“I think them getting that one run got us going a little bit more,” UH head coach Bob Coolen said. “We were being held at bay and we made the adjustments and we came out on fire after Kaia gave up that one run.”

The Wahine then closed the round-robin portion of the tournament with a 5-0 win over DePaul behind pitcher Stephanie Ricketts’ two-hit, six strikeout performance.

Hawaii (3-0) will be the top seed in today’s four-game bracket and faces Seattle (0-3) at 1 p.m. DePaul (2-1) plays UMKC (1-2) at 11 a.m.

The losers return to play for third place at 3 p.m. The tournament concludes with the championship game scheduled for 5.

Parnaby gave up four hits and struck out eight with no walks in Friday’s win. Ricketts needed just 87 pitches and faced two batters over the minimum in her victory.

Freshmen Leisha Liilii and Kayla Wartner highlighted the offense in the doubleheader. Liilii drove in five runs over two games and Wartner went 3-for-4 with an RBI against DePaul. Senior third baseman Sarah Robinson went a combined 4-for-7 and drove in two runs.

In the opener, UH stranded a runner at third in the first inning and again in the fourth against Friese, the reigning Summitt League pitcher of the year.

Parnaby matched Friese through five innings before the ’Roos bounded ahead in the sixth. UMKC loaded the bases with one out on a hit batter, a bunt single and a fielding error. A fielder’s choice grounder to first cut down a runner at the plate. Parnaby hit Chelsea Hartwig in the back to force in a run.

Kelly Majam led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and Robinson drilled a double just inside the left-field line to score Majam.

Robinson then scored the go-ahead run on Alex Aguirre’s looping single to left field. After Sharla Kliebenstien drew a walk on a 14-pitch at-bat, Liilii fell behind two strikes then blasted the next pitch into the tennis courts beyond center field for a three-run homer.

Liilii gave UH the lead against DePaul with a two-run single to ignite a four-run UH outburst in the fourth inning. That would be more than enough for Ricketts, who gave up an infield single to lead off the game then retired the next 17 hitters in a row and earned her second win of the tournament.