With 15 games left in the regular season, Hawaii softball coach Bob Coolen won’t hesitate to shake things up a bit.
The Rainbow Wahine enter their series at UC Riverside at 18-21 overall and 2-4 in Big West play and a lineup shuffle contributed to a strong finish last weekend. So Coolen plans to stick with the new look going into today’s series opener against the Highlanders (27-12-1, 3-3 BWC) … at least for now.
“We can’t go with the same old, same old all the time,” Coolen said. “We figured we have nothing to lose with creating different lineups and that’s what we’re going with right now.”
UH and UCR open their three-game series with a single game today at noon. They’ll play a doubleheader Saturday starting at 10 a.m.
Freshman Sarah Muzik remained atop the batting order throughout the season, but shifted roles defensively last week against Cal State Northridge.
After spending most of the season in left field, she started the first two games of the series at shortstop, then moved to second base for the finale. Coolen then inserted freshman Jennifer Iseri into left and she delivered a double to help spark UH’s 6-0 win to close the weekend.
Breanna Ojala, the starter at shortstop for the season’s first 36 games, came off the bench in the first two games last week, then singled in all three plate appearances in her return to the starting lineup.
“I think I definitely had a different perspective just seeing my teammates out here and not being out there with them,” Ojala said.
“I just came out with conviction and I was ready to hit and I think everyone else was too. Everyone was aggressive in the box.”
After dropping the first two games against the Matadors, the Wahine performed in all three phases to avoid a sweep at home and build a bit of momentum heading to Riverside, Calif. Brittany Hitchcock threw her third shutout of the season backed by solid defense and the UH offense strung together timely hits.
Senior right fielder Keiki Carlos is hitting .412 in Big West play and the UH pitching staff enters the week with a 1.92 earned-run average in six conference games, led by junior Kanani Aina Cabrales at 1.66 and Hitchcock at 1.96.
They’ll face a UC Riverside offense that tops the conference with a .318 team batting average and ranks second in the league with 68 stolen bases. Sophomore outfielder Madeline Richard leads the Big West and is third nationally at .504.
“They’re gonna run, they’re gonna put pressure on the defense to make plays (and) on your catchers to throw them out,” Coolen said.
“We have to do a better job pitching-wise not to give up 1-2, 0-2 hits to get runners on … and we have to do a better job, like in the last game, of manufacturing our own runs.”
