A seemingly interminable fourth inning brought the University of Hawaii softball team’s week in Las Vegas to an abrupt end in a 9-0 loss to Utah on Sunday.

The Utes did all of their scoring in the bottom of the fourth, peppering Rainbow Wahine pitching for nine singles and aided by two errors and two wild pitches, to bring the run rule into effect and close UH’s run in the DeMarini Desert Classic.

UH finished the four-day tournament at 2-4 and returns home at 6-6 overall.

UH sophomore Brittany Hitchcock held Utah without a hit through three innings with two baserunners reaching on errors. The Utes (8-3) then sent 15 batters to the plate in the fourth inning and Katie Donovan closed out a two-hit shutout in the fifth.

“They started hitting the ball because we started elevating it and in these conditions you can’t do that,” UH coach Bob Coolen said.

Hitchcock struck out three and walked none in 32⁄3 innings while falling to 3-4. UH’s two errors in the fourth led to six unearned runs in the inning. Donovan struck out seven and walked one in the abbreviated complete-game victory.

Anissa Urtez led off the fourth with the Utes’ first hit off of Hitchcock and Utah loaded the bases with two more singles. The Utes then took a 3-0 lead without a ball leaving the infield. Urtez scored on Ally Dickman’s groundout, Heather Bowen came in on an error and Kristen Stewart scored on a wild pitch.

Another RBI groundout and an infield single scored two more runs and Urtez drove in Utah’s sixth run with a single to center prompting a pitching change.

The scoring continued with two more singles and Utah’s ninth run scored on a throwing error before UH finally got out of the inning.

After grinding through six games in four days, the Wahine are scheduled to return to campus today and play host to Portland State and Utah Valley in the Bank of Hawaii Invitational starting Friday. Coolen said they’ll look to correct “just a lot of little things.”

“We’ll talk about it and make adjustments and get better,” he said.