Rainbow Wahine shut out Delaware, fall to UCLA

It was close to 1 a.m. as the University of Hawaii softball team packed up the gear after a heartbreaking loss to UCLA in a game that started Friday late night and ended early Saturday morning.

After coming one out away from knocking off the 16th-ranked Bruins, the Rainbow Wahine won’t have much time to dwell on the 7-2 loss. They’ll report back to Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning for a 10 a.m. game against Hampton in the bracket portion of the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic.

"They have to eat something, then get home and turn around and get right back up and get back down here," UH head coach Bob Coolen said. "It’s going to be a tough day and (the late finish) makes it tougher."

UH (2-1) will be the second seed and will take on the third-seeded Pirates (1-2). UCLA (3-0) faces Delaware (0-3) at noon. The losers meet for third place at 2 p.m. and the championship game is scheduled for 4.

But as Friday’s schedule demonstrated, other than the 10 a.m. opener, those starting times will likely be fluid.

The first two games on Friday pushed UH’s scheduled 6 p.m. game against Delaware back 90 minutes. After UH completed the 7-0 win behind freshman Heather Morales’ second consecutive complete-game shutout, the Wahine and Bruins got started around 10:30 p.m.

UH sophomore Loie Kesterson and UCLA’s Paige McDuffee took dual shutouts into the sixth inning with McDuffee retiring the first 15 batters she faced.

UH freshman Lindsey Willmon broke up the perfect game with the first home run of her college career to lead off the bottom of the sixth.

Kesterson got two outs in the top of the seventh with a runner on first when Ally Carda’s fly ball to right field glanced off the glove of Keiki Carlos and fell in allowing the tying run to score.

With the international tiebreaker rule in effect, the Bruins started the eighth with a runner on second. After a sacrifice bunt, Punahou graduate Mysha Sataraka broke the tie with a double to right center. Alyssa Tiumalu followed with a two-run homer and Delany Spaulding later capped the six-run outburst with a two-run double.

"Loie did a good job. I’m hoping that sort of helps her and the ending doesn’t hurt her," Coolen said. "It was a good game, it could have gone our way but it didn’t."

UH scratched out a run in the eighth but McDuffee got the final ground out at 12:45 a.m.

The status of UH second baseman Jazmine Zamora for Saturday’s games is uncertain after she left the game in the eighth inning.  Zamora was shaken up when UCLA’s Gracie Goulder collided with her as she tried to field a ground ball in the seventh. Zamora stayed in the game to start the eighth, but came off the field in the middle of the inning and was replaced by freshman Sarina Jaramillo.

Kesterson, a sophomore making her ninth career start, shut out the Bruins on five hits through 6 2/3 innings, extending UH’s run of scoreless innings to start the season to 20 2/3 innings.

Morales’ two-hit victory over Delaware gave her 14 straight shutout innings a night after holding Hampton to three hits in UH’s 2-0 season-opening win on Thursday.

She struck out three and walked three in the complete-game win in her second start of the season.

"She had good pop on her ball, she was still focused, we got the runs early and she did nice job giving up two hits," Coolen said.

Morales got early run support with Leisha Li’ili’i’s RBI double with two out in the bottom of the first inning.

In the bottom of the second, Willmon reached on an infield single and Kaile Nakao doubled to left field for the fourth extra-base hit of her career. Kayla Wartner walked to load the bases for Zamora.

Zamora worked the count full then was slightly ahead of an offspeed pitch but got enough of it to loop a single into shallow left to score Willmon. The throw to the plate sailed to the backstop, allowing Nakao to score. The toss back to the plate was also wild and Wartner came in to give UH a 4-0 lead.

Willmon added to the lead in the third when she lined a two-out single to right center to score Kristina Akiona from second.

UH loaded the bases with no out in the bottom of the fifth. After a strikeout, Wartner’s sacrifice fly to left scored Akiona and pushed UH’s lead to 6-0.

Akiona added another run with an RBI double in the sixth that scored pinch-runner Jordan Burton from first for UH’s final run.

Willmon accounted for both of UH’s runs against UCLA with her home run off of McDuffee in the sixth and an RBI ground out in the eighth. She went 3-for-5 in the doubleheader.

"Lindsey’s a gamer. You can tell by the cuts she takes, the way she plays. She has an awareness about the game," Coolen said.

Paige McDuffee and Brittany Moeai. Loie Kesterson and Sharla Kliebenstein. W—McDuffee. L—Kesterson.

Leading hitters—UCLA: Delaney Spaulding, 2-4, 2B, 2 RBIs; Mysha Sataraka, 2B, RBI; Alyssa Tiumalu, 3-4, HR, 2 RBIs; Gracie Goulder, 3-4, RBI. Hawaii: Lindsey Willmon, HR, 2 RBIs.

SATURDAY’S GAMES
Hawaii vs. Hampton, 10 a.m.
UCLA vs. Delaware, noon
Third-place game, 2 p.m.
Championship, 4.