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Hawaii senior Brittany Hitchcock set a career high with 12 strikeouts and junior third baseman Nicole Lopez hit two home runs to lead the Rainbow Wahine softball team to a 5-1 win over New Mexico on Friday in the second game of a doubleheader in the Marucci Desert Classic in Las Vegas.
Seattle rallied for a 4-2 win over the Wahine in UH’s first game.
Hitchcock bounced back from a rough debut in Thursday’s 10-1 loss to BYU by holding the Lobos to three hits in a complete-game victory. Callee Heen and Lopez hit back-to-back homers in the top of the first to give UH a 4-0 lead and Lopez added a solo shot in the seventh.
UH (1-2) faces Utah State and Idaho State in another doubleheader today.
UH volleyball alumni match on Sunday
The No. 3 Hawaii men’s volleyball team tunes up for its inaugural Big West Conference season with Sunday’s annual alumni match at the Stan Sheriff Center.
More than two dozen former Rainbow Warriors are expected to attend the event, which begins at 5 p.m. with a skills competition between alumni and varsity players. Among those expected to play in the best-of-three match are All-Americans Mark Presho (1990-93), Tony Ching (2000-03), Brian Beckwith (2004-07) and Siki Zarkovic (2013-16).
An autograph session will follow at approximately 7 p.m. with both Warriors and Rainbow Wahine players.
Hawaii (8-1) opens conference play hosting No. 4 UC Irvine (10-3). Matches are at 7 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Sunday.
Wahine lead MPSF swimming
Hawaii enters the final day of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation swimming and diving championships leading the women’s standings and are a close second in the men’s race.
The Rainbow Wahine are pursuing their second straight MPSF team title and ended Friday’s events at East Los Angeles College with 587 points, with UC Santa Barbara second at 446. UH’s 400 medley relay team of Franziska Weidner, Kionna Clayton, Lucia Lassman and Bryndis Hansen set a meet record with a time of 3:36.88 and Weidner added an individual record in the women’s 200 freestyle at 1:44.73. UH also got a win in 3-meter diving by Ivy Houser.
The Rainbow Warriors have 447.5 points, trailing UCSB (455). UH got wins from Metin Aydin (100 back), Olli Kokko (100 breast) and Mateusz Chaba (100 fly) on Friday.
Hawaii Hilo splits twin bill
The Hawaii Hilo softball team split a Friday afternoon doubleheader with Central Washington at McKinley High School.
The Vulcans (9-4) won the opener 9-1 behind strong hitting and pitching performances. Isabelle Mejia went 3-for-4 with three runs and one RBI as UHH had 10 hits as a team. Moanalua alum Cyanne Fernandez improved to 7-0 on the season after tossing a complete game, scattering four hits to go with three strikeouts.
The Wildcats (4-3) earned the split with a 7-4 victory in the second game.
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