After two rain-induced postponements, the Pepsi Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament finally got started on Saturday, and the 19th-ranked University of Hawaii softball team continued its record-setting run through the nonconference schedule.

The Rainbow Wahine swept a doubleheader against Southern Illinois and Radford on Saturday to run their winning streak to 19, breaking the program’s record set in 2010.

Not that UH head coach Bob Coolen is keeping close tabs on the record books.

"I’m just going day by day, game by game," Coolen said after the Wahine improved to 19-0. "I’m not worried about that stuff."

The weather, which pushed back the start of the tournament the previous two days, held up long enough to get all five games in, although the fans who stuck around Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium for the finale endured gusty wind and a rain delay.

In UH’s first game of the afternoon, UH senior Stephanie Ricketts struck out a season-high 12, Sharla Kliebenstein and Leisha Li’ili’i homered and the Wahine tied the win-streak record with a 7-1 victory over Southern Illinois (11-6).

Kliebenstein and Jessica Iwata then went deep in support of Kaia Parnaby, who gave up three hits in a 4-0 win over Radford (7-7).

"Those two teams played us real hard and the two (today) are going to play us just as hard," Coolen said. "It was good to get these two wins against two teams that came at us."

The rain-shortened tournament concludes today with five games starting at 10 a.m. UH plays Robert Morris at noon and Marist at 4 p.m.

In the win over Southern Illinois, the Wahine scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning, then pulled away in the sixth on back-to-back home runs by Kliebenstein and Li’ili’i.

Kliebenstein had been struggling at the plate in recent games and got a tip from Coolen just before hitting a two-run homer to right-center.

"He told me swing at the first outside (pitch) as hard as you can," Kliebenstein said, "and they gave it to me and it went over."

Against Radford, which also played in last week’s Bank of Hawaii Invitational, Kliebenstein hit her second home run of the day — and her team-high fifth of the season — in the fourth inning, and Iwata added a two-run shot in the fifth to give UH a 4-0 lead.

Parnaby (8-0) finished with three strikeouts and a walk to complete her fourth shutout of the season. Kliebenstein, who moved to right field after starting at catcher last season, contributed to that effort with a fine running catch in the right-center-field gap in the sixth inning.

"It was nice to have a break, but we’ve still been practicing to keep that edge," Kliebenstein said of waiting out last week’s wild weather. "We can’t let up at all. I think we’ll be all right; we’ve been working hard."