A taste of home can be a perk of playing on the road.
For the West Coast products on the University of Hawaii softball team’s roster, the Big West schedule offers opportunities to reconnect with familiar faces, starting with this weekend’s visit to UC Santa Barbara.
“It’s a time for them to rejuvenate, to get some home presence from family and friends, and it makes them want to perform better,” UH coach Bob Coolen said. “Over here their parents don’t always come. When we go on the road they have a lot more people looking at them and they want to play well.”
Coming out of a 10-game homestand capped by a week of Power Five competition, the Rainbow Wahine (6-9) embarked on their second road trip of the season this week and open the Big West schedule with a three-game series at UCSB’s Campus Diamond. The Wahine and Gauchos (8-17) play a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday.
The Wahine closed the nonconference portion of the schedule by going 1-4 in the Bank of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Classic, with losses to Baylor and California and two to No. 1 Oklahoma. They closed the weekend with a breakthrough win in a rematch with Cal last Saturday to enter conference play on an upswing.
Coolen came out of the first 15 games encouraged by the progress of a pitching staff anchored by freshmen Brianna Lopez and Chloe Borges and senior Ashley Murphy.
Lopez (3-3, 2.07 ERA) has allowed three earned runs in her last 29 innings and recovered from a first-inning home run to earn a complete-game victory in UH’s 6-1 win over Cal.
“They’ve panned out to be everything I hoped they would be on the mound,” Coolen said of the pitching staff. “They’re bulldogs — they go out there with presence and they pitch.”
The Wahine saw their overall batting average dip to .246 last week, but will look to build on a performance against Cal highlighted by home runs from center fielder Brittnee Rossi and shortstop Nawai Kaupe at the top of the order.
Rossi returned to the leadoff spot and scored three runs in the win to match her total through the first 14 games. Kaupe leads the Wahine offense in hitting .378 with four home runs.
Coolen moved second baseman Maya Nakamura (.372) into the cleanup spot and Ka’ena Keliinoi is hitting .313 in the bottom half of the order.
Keliinoi, who entered the program as a catcher and started in both corner outfield spots, provided solid defense at third base last weekend.
UCSB enters conference play second in the Big West with a .298 team batting average and a league-high .439 slugging percentage. The Gauchos pitching staff enters the series with a collective 6.40 ERA, the second highest mark among Big West teams.
