The routine can produce spectacular results.
A nearly two-week gap in the University of Hawaii softball team’s schedule didn’t mean a departure from Nicole Lopez’s hitting regimen.
So even after an arduous run of games to close the nonconference portion of the season, the Rainbow Wahine third baseman reported to the cage for her daily fix of tee work, flips and front toss to hone one of the Big West’s most productive swings this season.
“Hit every day, take more than what you need,” Lopez said of her key for maintaining a groove at the plate that has so far delivered a .419 batting average and a league-leading 10 home runs 28 games into her senior season.
Lopez took her first cuts as a 4-year-old in tee ball and her current numbers reflect countless cuts executed largely out of view, with a teammate or coach feeding her flips from 10 feet away to sharpen her timing before seeing live pitching, whether in batting practice or an intrasquad scrimmage or on game days.
Her next opportunity to test her swing in competition comes today when the Rainbow Wahine (19-9) return from a mid-March break to open the Big West season against Long Beach State (13-16).
In her first three years, Lopez collected the Big West freshman field player of the year award in 2016 and first-team all-conference honors the next two seasons, hitting .331 in 2017 and .306 in 2018.
Along with her dedication to the process, Lopez’s willingness to make adjustments — even given her previous production — has contributed to her uptick so far this season.
“We talked a lot about her hitting and her going opposite field,” UH coach Bob Coolen said. “You notice some of her hits are opposite field, her home runs are opposite field, and I told her the difference between all-conference and All-American is one hit. You’re either hitting three out of 10 or you’re hitting four out of 10 and she’s hitting four out of 10 because she’s going opposite field and they’re falling for her.”
Lopez said facing UH’s pitching in practice and scrimmages helped with her development in driving the ball to right field with greater frequency and authority.
“It obviously has been making me a better hitter not focusing just on one half of the plate, but expanding my zone knowing that I can get my hands out there even if it’s a ball off the plate,” Lopez said.
Lopez has hit safely in 24 of UH’s 28 games this season with eight strikeouts in 97 plate appearances. Her .433 on-base percentage has set the table for her 33 runs scored, which also leads the Big West, and she ranks 14th nationally at 1.18 per game.
Her home run total tops the Big West, trotting around the bases nine times and sprinting 240 feet for an inside-the-park homer in a 1-0 win over Niagara on March 13.
“I never had wheels until this year,” she said.
Lopez’s first hitting lessons were comprised of watching her older brother, Keoki, play baseball. Keoki, six years Nicole’s elder, went on to play high school ball at Saint Louis and Nicole followed him through the youth baseball ladder before transitioning to softball full-time as an eighth-grader.
“I played baseball and I wanted to be exactly like (Keoki) was,” Nicole said. “Just started picking up a bat when he had a bat and just kept swinging.”
In seventh grade, she connected with hitting coach Vince Farkas and their soft-toss sessions helped Lopez earn All-State honors at Mid-Pacific. She started at catcher on the Owls’ 2012 state championship team and was named the All-State position player of the year as a junior.
She continues to meet with Farkas for hitting workouts outside of UH’s practice schedule.
“He’s probably my biggest mentor hitting-wise,” Lopez said. “The swing I have today basically stems from him.”
The hitting sessions with Farkas often begin with a return to her baseball roots, with Lopez swinging a wooden bat for four buckets of soft toss using baseballs.
“It’s the best thing any softball player could do,” she said. “Working with the heavy bat, one, that helps with bat speed, helps you keep your mechanics up and makes you use your legs.”
It’s tough to argue with the results.
BIG WEST SOFTBALL
At Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium
>> Long Beach State (13-16, 0-0) vs. Hawaii (19-9, 0-0)
>> When: Today, 6 p.m.; Saturday (doubleheader), 2 p.m.
>> TV/Radio: none
>> Series: LBSU leads 63-29
