The University of Hawaii softball team’s bounce-back performance started right at the top.
Kelly Majam and Kayla Wartner, the first two hitters in the Rainbow Wahine batting order, went a combined 6-for-8 and scored five runs between them to spur UH to an 8-1 nonconference victory at Cal State Bakersfield on Tuesday.
On a chilly afternoon in Bakersfield, Calif., Majam ignited the Wahine offense by going 3-for-4 with two doubles from the leadoff spot and twice scored on hits by Wartner, who drove in three runs and hit her ninth home run of the season.
“Kelly was hitting the gaps and … Kayla hit a ball that got up in the wind and made it out of the ballpark,” UH head coach Bob Coolen said in a telephone interview from Bakersfield. “It was a riseball and she really got ahold of it. Kelly was hitting the ball all over the ballpark, up the middle, in the gaps.”
Senior pitcher Kaia Parnaby rebounded from an 11-3 loss at Cal State Fullerton on Sunday by striking out nine over six innings against the Roadrunners while raising her record to 31-4. Parnaby moved one win away from tying the program’s single-season wins record set by Melissa Coogan in 2003.
The midweek game came as a break in the Big West schedule for the Rainbow Wahine (34-8, 11-1 BWC), who remained 15th in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 and 20th in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 released earlier Tuesday.
“(Monday) we had sort of a lackluster practice. I wanted a little more energy after driving out here,” Coolen said. “Today it was nice to get two runs in the first inning. … It was good to get back out and get some things going.”
Majam and Wartner set the tone on Tuesday with back-to-back singles in the top of the first. Keiki Carlos then walked to load the bases, and Leisha Li‘ili‘i also drew a walk to score Majam. Wartner then hit a sacrifice fly.
After Majam walked with one out in the fourth, Wartner extended the lead to 4-0 with a home run to right.
UH freshman Kristina Akiona had a memorable stay in Bakersfield. Akiona was sent in as a pinch hitter in the top of the seventh and hit the first home run of her collegiate career.
“The ball she hit was a line drive, 220-foot shot,” Coolen said. “No height on it at all, it was just a line drive and that’s what she’s capable of.”
At Bakersfield, Calif.
Hawaii 200 203 1 — 8 13 0
CS Bakersfield 000 001 0 — 1 6 1
Kaia Parnaby, Loie Kesterson (7) and Kayla Wartner. Amber Mills, Kelsie Monroe, (2), Taylor Desilva (4), Sydney Raeber (6) and Ashley Carter.
W—Parnaby. L—Mills.
Leading hitters—Hawaii: Kelly Majam, 3-4, 2 2B, 3 runs; Wartner, 3-4, HR, 3 RBIs; Jessica Iwata, 2-4, 2B; Jazmine Zamora, 2-3, 2 RBIs; Alyssa Villalpando, 2B; Kristina Akiona, HR. CS Bakersfield: Shay Fryer, HR.
