Hawaii scored a debatable win in the rain-delay dance battle.
The Rainbow Wahine then settled for a split with UC Davis in Friday’s season-ending doubleheader.
UH erased two-run deficits in both games, pulling away for an 8-2 victory in the first game of a senior night twinbill at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
UC Davis broke up a shutout in the second game when Sarah Starks launched a two-run homer to center field in the top of the sixth inning. But UH shortstop Nawai Kaupe answered with a two-run shot to center in the bottom of the inning and the season finale went into extra innings.
The Aggies strung together four consecutive two-out singles in a three-run top of the ninth, taking the lead on an RBI single by Libbie McMahan and scoring twice more to close the season with a 5-2 victory.
The doubleheader closed the careers of UH seniors Cheeks Ramos, Bree Soma, Merilis “Mama” Rivera, Laakea Bertulfo, Samantha Thomas, Emily Klee and Dominique Martinez.
As in Thursday’s series opener UC Davis jumped out a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Unlike the 5-0 loss, the Wahine offense answered with a three-run third and pulled away with five runs in the fifth.
Dallas Millwood drove in the tying run in the third inning and added to UH’s lead in the fifth with her second RBI single of the game.
The game was delayed by rain in the seventh, with players from both teams dancing in front of their dugouts and UH assistant coach Kaulana Gould joining in the fun. Once play resumed, Ashley Murphy (4-7) finished off the complete-game win with her second strikeout of the game.
UC Davis sent Kenedi Brown to the circle for the finale a night after she struck out 12 in the series opener, and she again stifled the UH bats through five innings.
UH’s Jetta Nannen matched zeroes with Brown, allowing two hits through five innings. But after a popup fell in for a single just behind the circle in the sixth, Starks broke up the shutout with her blast to center field.
Brown stretched her run of scoreless innings to 12 before Ramos reached on an error in the bottom of the sixth. Kaupe then tied it up with her home run that just cleared the center-field fence.
Kaupe tripled off the right-field fence with one out in the bottom of the eighth, but Brown escaped with a groundout to third and a strikeout to extend the game.
In the top of the ninth, UC Davis’s Anna Dethlefson looped a single into shallow left and advanced on a groundout. With two out, McMahan dropped a single into right field and Dethlefson dove around the tag at the plate to give the Aggies the lead.
UH put runners on second and third in the bottom of the ninth, but Brown finished off the complete-game victory with a foul pop-up.
At Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium
UC Davis (18-24, 12-11) 200 000 0 — 2 8 1
Hawaii (12-18, 11-12) 003 050 x — 8 7 2
Taylor Fitzgerald, Sarah Reineman (5) and Katie Steffen-Brune. Ashley Murphy and Mya’Liah Bethea. W—Murphy. L—Fitzgerald.
Leading hitters—UC Davis: Sommer Kisling, 2B; Isabella Leon, 2-4, 2B, RBI; Marissa Jauregui, 2-4, RBI. Hawaii: Maya Nakamura, RBI; Dallas Millwood, 2-3, 2 RBIs; Brittnee Rossi, RBI; Lepepaina Matavao, RBI; Bethea, 2 RBIs.
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UC Davis (19-24, 13-11) 000 002 003 — 5 12 1
Hawaii (12-19, 11-13) 000 002 00 — 2 5 0
Kenedi Brown and Anna Dethlefson. Jetta Nannen, Emily Klee (6), Dominique Martinez (9) and Mya’Liah Bethea. W—Brown. L—Klee.
Leading hitters—UC Davis: Sarah Starks, 3-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBIs; Bella Pahulu, 3B; Libbie McMahan, 2-4, RBI; Sarah Nakahara, RBI; Isabella Leon, 2-5, RBI.
Hawaii: Nawai Kaupe, 2-3, HR, 3B, 2 RBIs.