A hot start at the plate and a dominant pitching performance sent the University of Hawaii softball team to a 7-0 win over Portland State on Friday in the Pepsi Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament.

UH left-hander Kaia Parnaby struck out a career-high and school-record-tying 15 in the two-hit shutout and got all the run support she needed in the top of the first inning when the first four Rainbow Wahine hitters scored.

"I had the day off and I was feeling good and it helped," said Parnaby, who didn’t pitch in Thursday’s exhibition doubleheader with Tokyo Women’s College of Physical Education.

"As soon as I came out in the first inning you could feel it coming off the ball a lot smoother and I felt in the zone tonight."

No. 21/24 UH led 3-0 before Portland State recorded an out in the bottom of the first inning. Kelly Majam walked to lead off the inning and Kayla Wartner followed with a triple off the right-field fence. Keiki Carlos then launched an opposite-field home run to right.

After two walks and two outs, Alyssa Villalpando — who went 5-for-6 in Thursday’s exhibition doubleheader — lined a double into the right-center gap to score Jessica Iwata with UH’s fourth run of the inning.

The lead grew to 7-0 when Leisha Li’ili’i hit a three-run homer to right with two out in the bottom of the second. Li’ili’i is 4-for-5 with two homers and seven RBIs since changing her number to 10, including Thursday’s doubleheader.

"That was all left over from last night," UH head coach Bob Coolen said of the early output. "That was coming out aggressive; the top of the lineup was playing very relaxed."

Parnaby struck out 10 through the first four innings, including eight in a row between the second and fourth innings. She gave up her first hit with one out in the fifth, but Wartner picked the runner off of first a batter later.

Parnaby struck out three of the next four hitters to tie her previous career best, a 14-strikeout performance against Marist last season.

She gave up a double to lead off the seventh but got another strikeout to set a new career high and finished out her fifth shutout of the season and 24th of her career.

UH (14-5) continues its run of 10 consecutive game days as the tournament continues today with UH scheduled to face Portland State again at 4 p.m. and East Carolina at 6.