Remember when we used to debate about whether the University of Hawaii should charge admission for softball? It was an especially hot topic in 2010, when the Wahine hit an NCAA-record 158 home runs on the way to the program’s only College World Series appearance.

Well, much of the bomb squad from Oklahoma that broke that record last year is here this week for four games in three days at the Bank of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Classic.

And plenty of folks would gladly pay to see if its leader, Jocelyn Alo of Hau’ula, will knock one out. The next round-tripper for Alo — who hit Oklahoma’s 159th of 2021 — makes her the all-time college home run queen, breaking a tie with former OU slugger Lauren Chamberlain.

The good thing for UH fans is if it happens this week Sooner rather than later, it won’t be against the Wahine.

The reigning national champions (16-0 and No. 1 in 2022), play Baylor on Thursday and Cal in an early game Friday before their two games against Hawaii (5-5 with a three-game winning streak), Friday evening and Saturday.

If Alo leaves the islands without leaving the park it won’t be because the Rainbow Wahine didn’t give her a chance.

Hawaii coach Bob Coolen has been asked about it at least once for each of Alo’s career 95 HRs: Will he have his pitchers intentionally walk her?

He answers with no hesitation.

“Nope.”

If you know Coolen, that’s no surprise.

“We’re going at her. We’re not gonna pitch around her,” he said Monday. “We will go at her, at how we think she might be struggling.”

Of course, what struggling means is different for Alo than mere mortals.

Alo was walked all three times up — once intentionally — as Oklahoma beat Minnesota 9-1 in five innings on Monday. She has walked 13 times in the six games since tying Chamberlain’s record Feb. 20.

“Nobody wanted to pitch to her when she played here in states,” Coolen said. “And no one wants to pitch to her now.”

But the Wahine will … not recklessly, but they will.

“I’ve been getting all kinds of questions.,” Coolen said.

“Would we walk her with the bases loaded? No.

“What if there’s a runner on second and first is open? No. But that’s when we tell our pitcher to be fine. But we’re not going to intentionally walk her.

“I don’t like to convey to my pitchers that we’ll give up on certain hitters,” he added.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Oklahoma is not just Alo. The Sooners lineup is dangerous from top to bottom, like UH’s in 2010.

“It’s pointless to walk her because of their lineup,” Wahine pitcher Chloe Borges said. “We talked about trying to keep her off-balance. We don’t want to give her a free base.”

Another question Coolen is being asked a lot now — actually, for years: How hard did he try to recruit Alo?

It was the other way around, for a brief period.

“When she was in eighth grade she sent us an email, telling us she was interested in our program,” Coolen said.

Alo was known more as a wrestler at the time, but Coolen knew she could hit and kept an eye on her.

“We were monitoring her at Kahuku, and all of a sudden she’s at Campbell. Then she was on TV a lot, recognized a lot.

“Following her eighth grade year I went to a tournament in Colorado and her dad was wearing Cal gear, so I thought, OK, she must have committed to Cal. The following summer at the same tournament he was wearing OU stuff.

“What really got her exposed was the BatBuster (club) team. They took her skill level and refined it and she got better and better and better.

“And it’s about time someone finally picked her up on the USA national team.”

In 2017, her freshman year, Alo spoke about her choice.

“When you’re from Hawaii and lived there all your life sometimes you just want to get away and explore something new,” she said. “I also wanted to go to a school where I was going to get my degree and compete at the highest level of softball.”

Coolen pointed out the rest of the field this week is pretty good too.

“Every game is going to be a challenge. Cal (15-6) will be a challenge. Baylor (11-6) will be a challenge,” he said.

It’s that respect all and fear none thing you hear all the time from competitors.

“Definitely an absolutely fantastic situation for us, getting to test ourselves against No. 1,” UH captain Brittnee Rossi said. “I like to look at it as we have nothing to lose. Why not challenge ourselves to see how we compete at that level? Game on!”

Rossi said she’ll be playing a little deeper than usual in center field.

“It’s exciting,” she said. “We’re going to be getting a lot of action out there.”

As always, no admission charge, but bring money for parking.

And don’t leave your car anywhere near the outfield fence.