Kaia Parnaby’s statistics are hard to ignore … but she’s sure trying. A few clicks around the NCAA.com softball page provides an idea of Parnaby’s place among the nation’s most productive pitchers this season. But tracking where she stands in the various rankings isn’t high on the University of Hawaii senior’s weekly to-do list.

"I kind of stay away," Parnaby said. "I don’t really like to think about things like that.

"Numbers are numbers, wins are what you want. It’s just go week to week and try to get a win."

The Rainbow Wahine (28-7, 6-0 Big West) — ranked 16th and 21st in this week’s national polls — open a three-game conference series with UC Riverside (15-21, 0-6) today with eight consecutive wins immediately behind them, part of a 6-0 start to the Big West season.

Unless there’s an item pertinent to preparing for an upcoming opponent, both Parnaby and head coach Bob Coolen prefer to leave the stat watching to others.

But if they were to take a peek they’d find …

» Parnaby leading the nation with 25 victories. Her total is the fourth highest in UH’s record book, with Melissa Coogan’s 32 wins in 2003 still the standard. She’s also third in career wins at UH with 72.

» Her 250 strikeouts ranks second nationally, three behind Marshall’s Andi Williamson. She’s second in UH history with 702 career strikeouts and is tied with Stephanie Ricketts for third on the single-season list. Brooke Wilkins, her mentor in Australia, owns the top two single-season marks of 261 (1995) and 324 (1994). Ricketts holds the career record of 818.

» An earned-run average of 1.18, good for 14th among Division I pitchers, and her nine shutouts ranks fourth.

» She’s 22nd in walks per seven innings at 1.15, a number that ties into her 2012⁄3 innings in 31 appearances by keeping her pitch counts within reason.

"Ultimately you just want to get the ball in play for your fielders," said Parnaby, who has thrown 26 complete games. "To keep it consistent is nice considering the number of innings. You don’t want to overthrow and you just want to be able to be consistent and efficient."

Of course, high pitch counts are sometimes unavoidable, such as the 161 she threw in a 10-inning win against UC Davis a week ago. A day later, she needed just 87 in a 2-1 victory.

To stay sharp, Parnaby has established a routine that includes two conditioning workouts with the team and a full bullpen session early in the week. She’ll later "roll through" another light session the day before the game to loosen up.

When game day comes, "I’ve kept my pregame pretty short and sweet," she said, "there will be days where I need to warm up a little more, that’s mainly the second day. … I’ll always pitch as much as I have to to feel confident."

Coolen has also developed a feel for when Parnaby might need a break, such as in last week’s series finale, when freshman Loie Kesterson was effective in a complete-game win.

"That is where I have to realize looking at her whether she’s capable of going and go from there," said Coolen, who is two wins away from reaching 900 in his career. "I have to gauge that and monitor that with her."

As for possibly increasing Kesterson’s work load, Coolen said "it’s going to be game by game. It’s going to be the nature of the team."

This week the Rainbow Wahine will face a UC Riverside team hitting a collective .267 and aiming to end a seven-game losing streak. Kayla White leads UCR at .339 with eight home runs and has 14 stolen bases in 17 attempts for a Highlanders offense that swipes bases at the highest rate in the conference (67-for-85).

The UCR pitching staff enters the series with a 4.64 ERA, with Alyssa Razo (7-9, 4.38) getting the bulk of the starts with 21. UCR gave up an average of eight runs per game while being swept by Pacific and Long Beach State over the past two weekends.

Notes

Saturday is Military Appreciation Day. UH will wear fatigue-style jerseys for the doubleheader, and the Wahine will hold an autograph session after the games.