It’s been a while since the University of Hawaii softball team went into a conference series in pursuit of an opponent.

The Rainbow Wahine led wire-to-wire in the program’s return to the Big West Conference last year and sat atop the Western Athletic Conference standings for the last two weeks of the 2012 season.

After dropping a home series last week, UH (19-16, 4-2 BWC) will be in chase mode this weekend in a road series against league-leader Long Beach State (29-9, 6-0).

The three-game series opens with a 10 a.m. doubleheader on Saturday at LBSU’s 49er Softball Complex and presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the Wahine.

"It’ll break us or make us," UH senior second baseman Jazmine Zamora said. "I feel it’s going to be the difference between a really short season or a really long season."

The series concludes with a single game on Sunday, also at 10 a.m. All three games will be shown on ESPN3.

The Wahine enter the weekend tied with Cal State Fullerton in second place, both teams two games behind the 49ers after the Titans claimed last week’s series against UH.

UH is 9-2 on the mainland this season and will try to pick up ground in a park where the 49ers also are 9-2.

LBSU leads the league with a .323 team batting average, paced by junior Shayna Kimbrough, last year’s Big West player of the year. Kimbrough is hitting .398.

LBSU went 37-20 last season and won the series against UH. But a second-place finish wasn’t enough to draw an invitation to the NCAA tournament.

"Long Beach is where I thought they would be," said UH coach Bob Coolen, who voted the 49ers first in the Big West’s preseason coaches poll.

"It’s a tribute to them that they haven’t lost a step and they have seniors who felt snubbed last year."

UH counters with a lineup led by first baseman Leisha Liilii, who raised her batting average to .392 and leads the conference with a .784 slugging percentage. She’s second in the league with 10 home runs.

The Wahine will face an LBSU pitching staff headlined by senior Erin Jones-Wesley. The hard-throwing right-hander enters the series at 16-4 with a 2.64 earned-run average. She became the program’s leader in career wins last week. Jones-Wesley is complemented by junior Amanda Hansen (13-4, 2.97).

"Coach Bob is pitching to us a lot differently. He is throwing heat at practice to get us used to it," Zamora said. "Our biggest thing is we need to be selective up there and be smart."

UH plans to start sophomore left-hander Loie Kesterson (10-7, 4.32) in Saturday’s opener, with freshman Heather Morales (9-6, 5.03) pitching the second game.

BIG WEST SOFTBALL

Saturday
Hawaii at Long Beach State (DH), 10 a.m.
UC Santa Barbara at CS Northridge (DH)
UC Davis at Cal Poly (DH)