Rachel Sabourin still keeps the photos handy in her phone.
There’s one from a family vacation when Sabourin was nine years old, not long after she had started playing competitive softball. The Sabourins decided to stop by the University of Hawaii campus before heading to the airport for the trip back to Colorado and snapped a quick shot of young Rachel in front of Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
The other was taken in Oklahoma City in June 2010. Sabourin’s club team happened to make the trip to the Women’s College World Series and there she is in her red jersey, reaching over a railing to give then-UH center fielder Kelly Majam a high five.
A Rainbow Wahine at heart back then, Sabourin would make it official when she signed with UH. Now, some 13 years since her first trip to Manoa, she’ll open the final series of her four-year college career today.
“It’s still so surreal to me,” Sabourin said Tuesday. “Just remembering that I was that little girl at one point and seeing Kelly Majam and Kaia Parnaby and Stephanie Ricketts and all of them at the World Series, it’s wow, that’s still so cool to think (about). And it’s weird that now I’m at that stage in my life where I’m as old as they were.”
Sabourin, better known around the ballpark as “Bueller,” (a reference to her favorite movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) is among four UH seniors making their farewell appearances at RWSS when the Rainbow Wahine (29-21, 12-12 Big West) close the season with a three-game conference series with UC Davis (27-19, 13-11).
The series opens with a single game today at 6 p.m. The schedule ends Friday with a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. The Thursday-Friday schedule is due to UH’s Commencement Exercise on the Lower Campus on Saturday.
Sabourin, a third baseman, center fielder Cira Bartolotti, first baseman/pitcher Amanda Ajari and infielder Princess Matavao will be honored in the senior night ceremony following Friday’s finale.
They had their freshman seasons cut short by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, dealt with the limitations of a truncated 2021 schedule and persevered through a full schedule as seniors.
“Those four have had to really be resilient in the sense that they’ve been in and out of classrooms, they’ve been in and out of practices and they’ve had to make it work with less time on the field and they made it the four years,” UH coach Bob Coolen said.
While the Big West title drifted out of reach over the last two weekends, the Wahine will reset their aim on posting their first 30-win season since 2019 and winning a series against UC Davis for the first time since 2017.
Coolen has managed Sabourin’s playing time this season as she deals with lingering back issues. Even so, she enters the week tied for third on the team with six home runs. But her impact in the program and on campus extend past her stat line as she’s developed traits she can carry beyond her college career.
“I feel I came in as just kind of a shy freshman and I’m coming out as kind of a spunky, outgoing and kind of crazy senior,” said Sabourin.
“I’ve definitely found my voice as a leader. I might not put up some of the numbers that I’ve wanted to over the last four years, but I think I’ve risen as someone who can be a voice for the team.”
Bartolotti has started all 50 games this season in center field after entering the program as a pitching prospect out of Maui and Kapolei and seeing limited playing time in her first three years. Along the way, she’s re-discovered the joy she had playing the game as a kid, an outlook she’ll carry into this week’s series.
“Just being in the moment and being in the present and just enjoying the last three games because it’s Hawaii and where else would I want play and finish out my softball career,” Bartolotti said. “It’s just really embracing everything.”
In dealing with the challenges of the last four years as a group, “I think it’s created bond that you can’t really describe to someone else unless they’ve been through it with you,” Bartolotti said. “I think we’ve been through the highs and lows all together and it’s just brought us together and connected us.
“Going through that with someone and being able to share it and coming out the other end on a high note I think is really special.”
Big West softball
At Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium
UC Davis (27-19, 13-11 BWC) vs. Hawaii (29-21, 12-12)
>> When: Today, 6 p.m.; Friday (doubleheader), 4 p.m.
>> TV: Friday’s games on Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: Today’s game on 1500-AM
