A grand slam ended Hawaii’s scoring drought, but a Cal State Northridge rally extended the Rainbow Wahine softball team’s recent struggles.
After UH catcher Rachel Lack gave the Wahine a lead with her first career grand slam, the Matadors scored five unanswered runs in a 7-4 win Friday in the opening game of a Big West series at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
CSUN first baseman Ariana Wassmer erased UH’s lead with a two-run home run with two out in the top of the fifth inning and the Matadors (22-16, 2-2 Big West) scratched out the go-ahead run in the sixth and added two more in the seventh with the aid of some shaky UH defense to send the Wahine (17-20, 1-3) to their third straight loss and fifth in their past six games.
After Lack ’s home run in the bottom of the third, CSUN’s Daphne Pofek allowed just one hit over the final four innings and shut out UH the rest of way. She gave up six hits, struck out six and walked four in a complete-game victory.
“We worked all week on quicker pitching … and I thought some of our kids swung the bat well with a little more confidence. We didn’t have that in the last two games we played,” UH coach Bob Coolen said, referring to two shutout losses at UC Davis a week ago. “I thought we competed … four errors are going to kill you.”
UH right-hander Brittany Hitchcock gave up seven runs, four earned, on 11 hits, struck out three and walked none and fell to 7-10.
The series concludes with a “military appreciation day” doubleheader today, starting at 2 p.m.
After CSUN jumped out to a 2-0 lead, UH’s string of scoreless innings reached 19 going into the third inning before Lack came up with the bases loaded with two out in the third and drove her fifth home run of the season out to right center.
“With the quicker speed she was throwing, I was just trying to use her speed and just make contact,” Lack said.
After Glover singled to lead off the fifth, Hitchcock got the next two outs before Wassmer jumped on the next pitch and tied the game with her homer to left field.
With one out in the sixth, Tara Kliebenstein — sister of former UH player Sharla Kliebenstein — singled to right and advanced on an error. She moved up on Savannah Horvath’s single and scored the go-ahead run on Glover’s grounder to shortstop. The Matadors extended the lead by manufacturing two more runs in the seventh.
“I thought our girls did a good job of just being ready for a fight,” CSUN coach Tairia Flowers said. “Hawaii’s a very good team and we know they’re going to score runs. We knew coming out that we were just going to have to keep pounding away and they did that.”
At Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium
CSUN (21-16, 1-2) 200 021 2 — 7 11 1
Hawaii (17-19, 1-2) 004 000 0 — 4 6 4
Daphne Pofek and Karlie Habitz, Brittany Hitchcock and Rachel Lack. W—Pofek. L—Hitchcock.
Leading hitters—CSUN: Savannah Horvath, 2-4; Taylor Glover, RBI; Habitz, 3-4, RBI; Ariana Wassmer, 2-4, HR, 3 RBIs; Mackenzie Babbitt, 2-4, RBI. Hawaii: Sarah Muzik, 2-4; Keiki Carlos, 2B; Lack, grand slam.
