Carlos’ walk-off homer lifts Wahine

After 9 1/2 innings and just over 2 hours and 40 minutes, Keiki Carlos decided it was time to send everyone home.

Carlos’ home run to lead off the bottom of the 10th inning gave the University of Hawaii softball team a 5-4 win over UC Davis on Friday in the opening game of the Big West series.

The freshman had two hits off UC Davis ace Justine Vela and both left Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium. Carlos’ first homer of the night, a three-run shot in the fifth, erased the Aggies’ 3-1 lead. Her second ended the game as No. 18/22 UH improved to 26-7 overall and 4-0 in Big West play.

"Keiki was the real deal tonight," UH coach Bob Coolen said. "She’s attacking that ball."

Carlos sent Vela’s first pitch of the 10th out to center field and gave senior Kaia Parnaby a complete-game victory. Parnaby struck out 11, walked three and gave up nine hits over 10 innings while raising her record to 24-3.

"Kaia is just the workhorse for this team and I knew we all just wanted to get out of here," Carlos said. "I just wanted to whack it as hard as I could."

After waiting around for the game during the day and a long night at the park, the Rainbow Wahine return for a doubleheader to close the series with UC Davis (13-15, 0-1) today starting at 2 p.m.

"Their routine is changed and you could see that in the beginning of the game," Coolen said of the Good Friday holiday on the Manoa campus. "Kaia wasn’t sharp, got stronger as the game went on, kept us in the ballgame and figured it out. We did a nice job staying in that game because that game could have escaped us."

UH scored all of its runs on homers and UC Davis, not noted for its power entering the series, also took a 2-0 lead with a long ball.

Megan Guzman slapped a single into left to lead off the top of the first inning. After a sacrifice bunt and a flyout, Kelly Schulze took a strike then hammered the next pitch deep to center field for her second home run of the season and just UCD’s fifth as a team.

Vela, last season’s Big West Pitcher of the Year, had six strikeouts her first time through the UH order before Kelly Majam broke through with a solo home run to center field with two out in the bottom of the third.

UCD added a run in the fifth when Krista Bava led off with a single to left and went to second on an error. She advanced on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch with two out and two strikes on Kayla Tyler to give UCD a 3-1 lead.

Carlos gave UH its first lead with her fourth home run of the season, a three-run shot to left center with Brynne Buchanan and Majam on base.

UCD battled back with a two-out rally in the sixth to tie the game. After UCD kept the inning alive with a single and a walk, JJ Wagoner’s liner landed just inside the left-field line to score Chandler Wagner from second.

Vela and Parnaby threw scoreless seventh innings and UH went into extra innings in its second straight home game.

After Parnaby retired the Aggies in order in the 10th, Carlos jumped on Vela’s 161st pitch of the game.

"In the beginning of the game a bunch of us noticed she was throwing her first pitch for strikes, so I knew I had to go after it and it was right there," Carlos said.