Hawaii did its part to set up a dramatic final weekend to the Big West softball season.

While the Rainbow Wahine won’t have a say in the final outcome of the title race, extending a late-season surge provides motivation for a series at UC Davis to close the 2022 schedule.

By sweeping first-place Cal State Fullerton last week, the Wahine helped force a tie atop the conference standings, and the Big West championship will be decided in a three-game series between the Titans and Long Beach State starting today in Fullerton, Calif.

Meanwhile, upstate in Northern California, UH (22-17, 16-8 Big West) enters today’s series opener at UC Davis’ La Rue Field two games behind the leaders and out of reach of first place and a spot in the NCAA Regionals.

“We don’t have a (conference) tournament, we don’t have RPI, we don’t have strength of schedule. We needed to take care of business earlier in the year,” UH coach Bob Coolen said. “We were finding ourselves along the way and I would say the culmination came this past weekend.”

UH enters the series at UC Davis (21-28, 9-15) alone in third place and at No. 109 in the NCAA RPI and can finish as high as solo second in the Big West depending on this weekend’s results in Davis and Fullerton.

Coolen expressed his continued frustration over the lack of a Big West softball tournament, and given their recent push, the Wahine might have posed a threat in a postseason setting. As it is, the Wahine and Aggies open their series with a single game today and play a doubleheader on Saturday.

“I would love to have afforded that to our players because they are hot and that would have made the tournament very interesting,” Coolen said.

Prior to departing for the final road trip of the season, the Wahine were still reveling in the first sweep of Cal State Fullerton in program history. UH had lost 16 straight games to the Titans going back to 2016 before freshman Brianna Lopez went the distance in a 1-0 win a week ago to begin senior weekend at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

The Wahine squandered a 10-1 lead in the opener of last Saturday’s doubleheader but clinched their first series win over Cal State Fullerton since 2013 when Dallas Millwood launched a two-run homer in the eighth inning of a 13-11 shootout. Chloe Borges and Lopez then combined on a five-hit shutout and UH completed the sweep with a 2-0 win.

Lopez was named the Big West Freshman of the Week on Monday and center fielder Brittnee Rossi was the Field Player of the Week after hitting .500 with a home run in her final series at RWSS.

“I don’t think we’ve ever come together as a team like we did that weekend,” Rossi said. “I didn’t feel any stress whatsoever. I thought about it afterward and I was so comfortable during that series — in the box, in the field — and I feel like I can say the same for everyone else. Everyone had such great energy, such great attitudes throughout the entire series.”

The sweep was sweetened by the chirping emanating from the Fullerton dugout, which was described by the UH camp as “disrespectful.”

“They were non-stop talking the entire three games,” Lopez said. “My dad has watched me play since 6U and he said he’s never seen me get that hyped up and jumping around (after the final out). … So it was really fun, and me personally I never do that stuff. I tend to stay composed and give high fives. For some reason this series got me fired up.”

Lopez (13-7, 1.97 ERA) figures to be among the contenders for Big West Freshman of the Year along with UC San Diego’s Jada Cecil (18-4, 1.59, 223 strikeouts). UC Davis also features one of the conference’s top pitchers in 6-foot-2 sophomore Kenedi Brown (12-18, 1.70).

A strong finish could also contribute to the UH athletic department’s collective standing in the race for the Big West Commissioner’s Cup, awarded to the conference’s most successful school throughout the academic year. Points are awarded based on regular-season standings, and UH entered the week with an average of 129.2 points, tied for second with Long Beach State and just behind leader Cal Poly (130.0).

“Of course we want to contribute to our athletics program and make a name for ourselves,” Rossi said. “We just want to finish strong and hopefully help this program in that way.”