Brittany Hitchcock’s first appearance in a conference road game won’t be a completely unfamiliar experience.
Part of the University of Hawaii softball team’s Southern California contingent, Hitchcock will have family and friends in the stands at Anderson Family Field when the Rainbow Wahine face Cal State Fullerton in a Big West series starting Friday.
She’ll also face a few friends in the Titans lineup when she steps into the pitchers circle. And although she didn’t pitch last year, she got a feel for the intensity of conference play on the road by making three trips while recovering from a back injury.
"I got to sit back and watch a lot of the emotional side and physical side of what people went through to be on the road and just prepared me for this year," Hitchcock said.
Hitchcock, a redshirt freshman, made her Big West debut last weekend with a shutout performance split over two days against UC Riverside and combined with Kanani Aina Cabrales to get the Wahine through the conference opening series without surrendering an earned run.
Hitchcock was sharp in striking out four in two innings last Saturday before the game was suspended by rain. She came back on Sunday and worked out of trouble to complete the 3-0 win. Aina Cabrales followed with a 1-0 victory to give UH the series win before the Wahine headed on the road … or back home, for some.
Hitchcock’s family will make the drive from Huntington Beach, Calif., a 15- to 20-minute trip, and she played with and against a few members of the Fullerton roster growing up, including Samantha Vandiver and Missy Taukeiaho, two of the leading producers in a lineup that averages 5.3 runs per game.
Vandiver enters the series with a 21-game hitting streak and is hitting .563 in 31 games. Taukeiaho is hitting .424 with a team-high eight home runs and leads the conference with a .776 slugging percentage.
The Titans have a team earned-run average of 3.66 and opponents are hitting .295, "but they’re successful because of all the runs they score and all the power they have and they have that swag," UH coach Bob Coolen said.
If Coolen sticks to last week’s rotation, Aina Cabrales (10-10, 2.62) would get the start in Friday’s opener set for 2 p.m. Hawaii time. Hitchcock (10-5, 2.39) started the middle game against UCR with Aina Cabrales coming back for the finale. Saturday’s 9 a.m. doubleheader will be shown on ESPN3.
Coolen is looking for the top half of the batting order to set the pace for the UH offense. The Wahine scratched out five runs, with leadoff hitter Keiki Carlos scoring three, last weekend and are looking for give the pitchers more backing.
"We want to help our pitchers out and just get that pressure off of them so they can just do their thing," Carlos said.
RAINBOW WAHINE SOFTBALL
At Fullerton, Calif.
>> Who: Hawaii (21-15, 2-1 Big West) vs. Cal State Fullerton (24-13, 2-1)
>> When: 2 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. Saturday (doubleheader)
>> Streaming Video: BigWest.tv (Friday), ESPN3 (Saturday)
