Rainbow Wahine give softball coach Bob Coolen 1,100th career victory

Hawaii capped the season’s opening weekend with a 7-5 win over Cal State Bakersfield to give Rainbow Wahine softball coach Bob Coolen his 1,100th career victory on Sunday in Las Vegas.

UH second baseman Maya Nakamura went 3-for-3 and drove in two runs, freshman pitcher Chloe Borges hit her first collegiate home run and Rainbow Wahine (1-4) earned their first win of the season in the finale of the Rebel Kickoff at Eller Media Stadium.

Coolen began his career with five years at Bentley before coming to Hawaii as an assistant coach in 1990 and taking over the program in 1992.

“I appreciate the coach (at Bentley) giving me the opportunity as well as (former UH coach) Rayla (Allison) giving me the opportunity at Hawaii,” Coolen said in a phone interview.

“I never knew I’d be coaching this long. It was doing something that was handed to me as a JV high school softball coaching job to start out and never knew it would turn into something like this. It’s been a good journey.”

UH first baseman Dallas Millwood (3-for-4) gave UH the lead with an RBI single in the second inning and Nakamura delivered a two-run single in the third. Borges hit a solo homer in the top of the seventh and held off the Roadrunners (0-5) in the bottom of inning in relief of freshman Brianna Lopez, who went 41⁄3 innings in her first collegiate win.

“Now they’re aware of where we need to go if we’re going to be there at the end of a tournament and make things happen,” Coolen said. “It was good. We learned a lot.”

UH faces Chaminade in a doubleheader on Friday in its home opener at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.