A much-needed break gave the Rainbow Wahine softball team a fresh start.

Playing off a three-day break, Hawaii took an early lead and held on for a 4-3 win over Iowa on Wednesday in the Hawaii Pacific Health Rainbow Wahine Classic. Freshmen Sarah Muzik and Nicole Lopez each had two hits for host Hawaii (14-14), which had played 10 games in nine days prior to the brief layoff.

“I don’t think we had a lead of 4-0 in any game for a long time,” said Hawaii coach Bob Coolen. “It was sort of bringing us back to the first weekend when we were fresh. Packing the schedule real tight with a lot of games is something I have to take a look at because we need at least three days off to recoup. All the teams that want to come over here, they just want to play.”

Brittany Hitchcock struck out six as Hawaii won back-to-back games for the first time in two weeks.

“It was good for us to finally get a day off to relax,” Lopez said. “Coming back yesterday to practice, we lifted on Monday, so I felt it was a good process to reach here.”

Lopez’s bases-clearing single put Hawaii ahead 4-0 in the bottom of the second inning. Three consecutive singles loaded the bases for Hawaii before Lopez drove a single to center field that bounced off the glove of Sammi Gyerman. Before her hit, Coolen called Lopez over.

“He said to see it and I was up in the count,” Lopez said. “Just to see the ball and attack it.”

Hawaii’s suspect defense shortened its lead when Iowa (7-14) scored three unearned runs in the top of the sixth to close to 4-3. Consecutive errors charged to Lopez allowed Kaitlyn Mullarkey and Mallory Kilian to score with two out. The Rainbow Wahine lead the Big West with 45 errors and Coolen reminded his team of that.

“I went out there and reminded them of that and told them to start picking it up because we discussed that defense wins championships,” Coolen said. “Everyone always use that cliche. Having now 45 errors, it doesn’t help us because we just put our pitcher in trouble.

“Our pitcher puts the ball in play, it gets hit a little harder and the whole game they weren’t hitting that way. And all of a sudden we start making errors and we put pressure on ourselves.”

Pinch hitter Cheyenne Pratt lined out to Lopez to end the inning.

Hitchcock picked up her sixth strikeout of the game to lead off the top of the seventh. Katy Taylor then singled, beating out a throw by shortstop Breanna Ojala. Claire Fritsch grounded out to Hitchcock for the second out and Mullarkey grounded out to Ojala to end the game.

Muzik, who started in left field all season, got the starting nod at second. She produced an inning-ending double play in the top of the third when she collected a grounder, tagged an Iowa runner taking off for second and threw to Rachael Turner at first for the third out.

“She’s a natural shortstop, second basemen,” Coolen said. “It just helps you. She turned that double play early in the game. She’s so quick, so smart.”