The joy was unmistakable.
Bree Soma’s left-handed swing had connected the barrel to a pitch tailing away from her, sending the ball sailing to the left-center gap. The ball hit the net beyond the fence and Soma, in nearly a full sprint, raised her arms as she rounded second and again as she bounded toward the plate and two teammates who had scored ahead of her.
The Hawaii senior had hit three home runs over her previous four years in the Rainbow Wahine softball program, the first two abbreviated by injuries and last season cut short by the pandemic.
So Soma’s reaction to her first hit of 2021 — a three-run homer against UC Santa Barbara on March 19 — spoke to the perspective she carried into her final year of college softball.
“I feel like I took (the early adversity), and then this being my last year after the COVID year, I just want to have fun,” Soma said. “I really want to go out there and take this last year and have fun with my teammates. It’s kind of like my last hurrah, so I want to take that and really run with it for the rest of the games this year.”
Since that first hit of the season, Soma has enjoyed a productive senior year while providing punch in the ninth spot in the UH batting order.
Soma has started all 20 games in left field and has hit safely in 12 of the past 17 contests. She enters this weekend’s Big West series against Long Beach State hitting .308 and ranks second on the team and fifth in the Big West with 15 RBIs. While her first home run went to the opposite field, she pulled her second out to right field in a win at Cal Poly on April 9.
“It’s a definite mindset. She likes (hitting ninth),” UH coach Bob Coolen said. “She likes when runners are on. … That series where she was driving in runs, not only hitting oppo but she was pulling the ball. So she has come around. She has the strength to put the ball over the fence and it’s just a mindset for her that she’s going out with a bang.”
A leadoff hitter during All-State junior and senior seasons at Maryknoll, Soma made 21 starts her freshman year in 2017 before an awkward step running down the first base line resulted in a season-ending injury. She returned to the lineup for 15 games in 2018 before being sidelined again and being granted a medical redshirt. She hit .222 in 33 games in her second chance at a sophomore year and started 23 games with a .203 batting average last year before the shutdown.
Soma said during her comebacks, “the biggest challenge was being away from my teammates. You just have a different agenda when you’re injured, so it seems like you’re always alone.”
Soma’s production has helped the Wahine enter the week at 11-9 overall and in third place in the Big West standings at 10-5. They’ll close the regular season by facing the top half of the conference over the next three weeks, starting with this weekend’s series against second-place Long Beach State (22-6, 16-2).
After a bye week, UH opens the four-game series with a 4 p.m. doubleheader today at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium. The Wahine and The Beach will play another doubleheader Saturday at 2 p.m. The first three games of the series will count in the Big West standings, with the finale considered a nonconference contest.
”They came back on Monday, there was a sense of purpose in the weight room and we went out and did some drills to hopefully set us up well for the next three weekends,” Coolen said. “We’ve been scrimmaging live every chance we have, we put our pitchers on the mound and let them keep their craft going and and stay sharp.”
The Beach enter the series with the conference’s top team batting average (.323) and earned-run average (1.66). First baseman Alyssa Gonzalez leads the LBSU offense with a conference-best .494 batting average. Kellie White leads the pitching staff at 11-4 with a 1.11 ERA, while Shannon Haddad is 8-0 with a 2.05 ERA.
Big West softball
At Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium
Long Beach State (22-6, 16-2 BWC) vs. Hawaii (11-9, 10-5)
>> When: Today (doubleheader), 4 p.m. Saturday (doubleheader), 2 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: None
