Placed in a pressure situation off the bench, Hawaii senior Tayana Mata delivered on two pivotal swings in the Rainbow Wahine softball team’s 5-3 comeback victory over UC Riverside on Friday.
With UH trailing by a run and two out in the sixth inning, Mata looped a pinch-hit single into left field to drive in Keiki Carlos with the tying run.
| At Riverside, Calif. |
| Hawaii (19-21, 3-4) |
000 |
111 |
02 |
— |
5 |
10 |
3 |
| UC Riverside (27-13-1, 3-4) |
100 |
200 |
00 |
— |
3 |
8 |
1 |
Brittany Hitchcock and Rachel Lack, Heather Cameron (6). Tayler Misfeldt and Chelsey Holley. W—Hitchcock. L—Misfeldt.
Leading hitters—Hawaii: Keiki Carlos, 3-4, 3 runs, 2B; Tayana Mata, 2-2, 2 RBIs; Rachael Turner, 2B; Dori Ann Sugai, RBI; Jennifer Iseri, RBI. UC Riverside: Madeline Richard, 3-3, 2 SB; Jenna Curtan, 2B, RBI; Courtnie Ploesch, 2-3, RBI; Alexis Lockwood, 2B, RBI.
The game went into extra innings and Mata again came through with a two-out single in the eighth to give UH its first lead of the afternoon and the Wahine (19-21, 3-4 Big West) held on to claim the opener of the three-game conference series at UCR’s Amy S. Harrison Softball Field.
“We made some moves and after the game I told (Mata) she was the queen of the chess game I was playing,” UH coach Bob Coolen said.
Along with Mata’s contributions off the bench, Coolen credited Carlos for igniting the UH offense by going 3-for-4 with a double and scoring three runs.
“Keiki was the one who made it all happen, because Keiki was on fire,” Coolen said.
UH right-hander Brittany Hitchcock gave up eight hits to a UCR lineup leading the conference with a collective .316 batting average. She struck out four and walked one and escaped a jam in the bottom of the seventh, leaving the potential winning run on third, on her way to a complete-game victory.
“The game could have gotten out of hand really easily,” Coolen said. “We were making errors, we were making mistakes. … Brittany had to make some pitches that mattered and she kept us in the game.”
The series concludes today with a doubleheader starting at 10 a.m. Kanani Aina Cabrales is scheduled to start the first game, with Hitchcock to follow in the series finale.
With Friday’s game tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the fourth, UCR (27-13-1, 3-4) jumped ahead with a two-run rally after the first two batters reached on UH errors.
UH first baseman Rachael Turner was responsible for one of the errors, but responded with a one-out double in the fifth and pinch runner Dori Ann Sugai later scored on Jennifer Iseri’s RBI groundout to cut the deficit to one.
“She accepted the challenge and didn’t give up at the plate,” Coolen said of Turner. “She stayed in there and hit the ball hard and I give her a lot of credit. She realized she had to get back in another way.”
Mata was summoned off the bench in the sixth and drove in Carlos with the tying run and both teams stranded the go-ahead run at third in the seventh inning.
Carlos led off the eighth with a single and advanced on Heather Morales’ groundout. After a flyout, Mata singled to score Carlos from second and give UH the lead. Sugai then delivered her second RBI of the season to give Hitchcock added breathing room.
UCR’s Tayler Misfeldt, the reigning Big West pitcher of the week, took the loss despite striking out nine in a complete-game effort.
