UH softball team rallies past Cal Poly

Heather Morales’ bases-loaded single capped the University of Hawaii softball team’s two-out rally in the seventh inning and the Rainbow Wahine opened their final home series of the season with a 3-2 comeback win over Cal Poly tonight at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

After Cal Poly pitcher Sierra Hyland recorded her 13th strikeout of the night to open the bottom of the seventh inning, UH (22-27, 6-10 Big West) pieced together the three-run rally to stun the Mustangs (23-22, 6-10).

With one out, Tayana Mata singled into right field and moved to second on a groundout to second base. Jennifer Iseri’s grounder to shortstop was bobbled and she beat the throw to first with a dive to extend the inning. Sarah Muzik fell behind two strikes before flaring a single into left field to load the bases.

Nicole Lopez, who struck out in her previous three plate appearances, also fell behind in the count but dropped a soft liner into left field to score Mata. The throw to the plate sailed to the backstop and Iseri continued around third to score the tying run.

After Keiki Carlos was intentionally walked to load the bases again, Morales lined another single into left to bring Muzik in with a game-winning run.

The rally gave Brittany Hitchcock a complete-game victory. The sophomore gave up seven hits, struck out five and walked none while improving to 11-14.

Until the seventh, Hyland stymied the UH batting order and drove in both of the Mustangs’ runs with RBI singles in the first and third innings. She struck out eight of the first 10 batters she faced and posted her ninth double-digit strikeout game of the season

The series concludes Saturday with a Senior Day doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. UH’s seniors will be honored after the finale.