Final exams and the pursuit of a conference championship have occupied the attention of the University of Hawaii softball team heading into its final series of the Big West schedule.
When the Rainbow Wahine take the field today in Stockton, Calif., they’ll have finished their academic tests and can devote their focus to their on-field mission to close the regular season.
BIG WEST SOFTBALL
» Matchup: Hawaii (40-11, 17-4 BWC) at Pacific (28-25, 12-9)
» When: Today (doubleheader), noon HST. Saturday, 9 a.m.
» Where: Bill Simoni Field, Stockton, Calif.
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UH (40-11, 17-4 BWC) enters today’s doubleheader at Pacific (28-25, 12-9) needing one win in this weekend’s three-game conference series to clinch the Big West title outright and secure the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Wahine reduced their magic number to one by sweeping their senior day doubleheader last Saturday, and "we all know we still have business to take care of," said junior second baseman Jazmine Zamora, the team’s leading hitter entering the week.
"We still know that any time could be our last with these seniors. So it’s just going to be like senior night every single game we play. We know where we want to go, but we know what we have to do to achieve it. We have to take it game by game."
In fact, it’s only for logistical necessities that UH coach Bob Coolen is allowing himself to think about Sunday’s NCAA tournament selection show.
UH has submitted a bid to host a regional, but with the Wahine at No. 22 in the RPI this week and 20th and 24th in the polls, a shot at hosting appears out of reach.
Coolen said the Wahine received approval to stay in California on Sunday and await word on their next destination, if they secure the automatic bid. If the team is waiting for an at-large berth, "we’ll have to play it by ear," he said.
For now, though, the focus is on today’s doubleheader, which starts at noon Hawaii time. The Wahine and Tigers close the regular season with a single game at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Some of the UH players had finished final exams before departing Wednesday morning. Others still had tests to take during the trip, including senior pitcher Kaia Parnaby.
"It’s being able to balance my schedule out and knowing when to focus on the game and when I can focus on my exams," said Parnaby, who is on track to graduate this summer.
"By game time we should all be done with finals so we won’t have anything else to worry about, and that’s definitely going be a stress reliever for a lot of us."
After turning in her last test of the semester, Parnaby (35-5, 1.51 ERA, 317 strikeouts) will concentrate on a Pacific lineup led by seniors Megan Hom (.357) and Nikki Armagost (.331). Parnaby enters the series one win away from breaking the Big West’s single-season record and seven strikeouts away from tying the school and conference marks.
UOP had hopes of catching the Wahine until a week ago, when the Tigers were swept at Cal State Fullerton and dropped out of contention. They can still influence the race’s outcome, with Long Beach State (17-7) needing a UOP sweep to finish in a tie for first. The 49ers’ series win over UH two weeks ago would give them the tiebreaker edge and the automatic bid.
This week’s series between UH and UOP will be their first since 2007 and their last as conference rivals before the Tigers move to the West Coast Conference next season.
"I just want to go out and play our brand of softball and (UOP head coach Brian Kolze) wants to go out and end on a winning note," said Coolen, who roomed with Kolze on recruiting trips early in their coaching careers. "I know he has a lot of pride in his program and his players and they’ll play hard."
Zamora tops a UH offense hitting .287 overall and .329 in league play. She has hit safely in 17 of UH’s 21 Big West games and leads the team in hitting, both overall at .345 and in conference play at .403. She closed last week’s homestand by going 5-for-6 with two home runs and five RBIs in the doubleheader sweep of UC Santa Barbara.
