Along with sharing musical tastes, Heather Cameron and Jordian Hicks have complemented each other quite nicely in the University of Hawaii softball team’s batting order.
A 12-day break in the schedule did little to cool off the duo and the Rainbow Wahine shook off a wobbly start to open the Big West season with a 9-1 win over UC Davis in six innings on Friday at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
Hitting in the eighth and ninth spots, Cameron and Hicks combined for four hits — three going for extra bases — and drove in five of UH’s first six runs.
“Usually we’re pretty good when we’re back to back,” Cameron said, “and we both have AC/DC walk-up songs, so we kind of click that way too. I think that may be it.”
Cameron, who approaches the plate to the opening chords of “Thunderstruck,” entered the game hitting .444 in her past nine games and highlighted UH’s 13-hit attack with a grand slam — the first of her softball career — in the bottom of the third inning.
“Cam is just feeling like Superwoman out there,” UH Bob Coolen said after the Rainbow Wahine extended their winning streak to seven while halting UC Davis’ seven-game run.
UH third baseman Nicole Lopez brought the run rule into effect with two out in the bottom of the sixth with her eighth home run of the season for the Wahine (22-10), who did all of their scoring with two outs.
Hicks picked “You Shook Me All Night Long” for her intro and broke into the starting lineup in left field in UH’s last nonconference tournament. She erased UC Davis’ 1-0 lead with a two-out double in the bottom of the second. She scored the go-ahead run when Danielle Garcielita’s sharp grounder zipped under the glove of UCD third baseman Ashley Lotozynski for an RBI double.
Hicks also made a sliding catch in foul territory to end the top of the fifth, while shortstop Angelique Ramos, who went 3-for-3 at the plate, made a diving attempt above her.
“Unbelievable,” Coolen said. “She didn’t take her eye off that ball. She could have gotten kicked in the face, anything could have happened and she went right under and that right there stopped their whole momentum.”
UH right-hander Brittany Hitchcock (13-6) gave up an unearned run in the first inning but held off the Aggies the rest of the way in a five-hit, complete-game performance. She escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second inning and finished with four strikeouts and two walks.
“We had a Pac-12 strike zone,” Coolen said. “It makes the pitchers throw strikes — white-to-white, not black-to-black. Pitchers have to throw strikes, they can’t rely on corners. … That’s good for us because if you want to aspire to be like that, let’s play like that.”
UC Davis (15-18) put the leadoff runner on base in four innings and UH committed a season-high four errors, but stranded 10 runners in the game.
The three-game series concludes with a doubleheader today starting at 2 p.m. at RWSS.
At Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium
>> UC Davis (15-18, 0-1) 100 000 — 1 5 1
>> Hawaii (22-10, 1-0) 024 111 — 9 13 4
Andrea Reynolds, Sara Cadona (4) and Alexis Carney. Brittany Hitchcock and Callee Heen. W—Hitchcock. L—Reynolds.
Leading hitters—UC Davis: Christa Castello, 2B; Alex Sotomayor, 2B. Hawaii: Danielle Garcielita, 2-4, 2B, RBI; Nicole Lopez, 2-4, HR; Heather Morales, 2-3, 2B, RBI; Angelique Ramos, 3-3; Heather Cameron, 2-3, 2B, grand slam; Jordian Hicks, 2-3, 2B, RBI.
