UH softball team sweeps doubleheader at Cal State Fullerton
The University of Hawaii softball team opened its longest road trip of the season by sweeping today’s Big West doubleheader at Cal State Fullerton.
Rainbow Wahine senior Kaia Parnaby earned two complete-game victories and catcher Kayla Wartner drove in six runs in the doubleheader as No. 15/20 UH won the opener 14-2 and claimed the second game 8-4 at Anderson Family Field in Fullerton, Calif.
The Wahine extended their winning streak to 13 while improving to 33-7 overall and 11-0 in Big West play. The series concludes with a single game on Sunday at 9 a.m. Hawaii time.
Parnaby raised her record to 30-3 and became the third UH pitcher to reach the 30-win mark in a season, joining Melissa Coogan (32 wins in 2003) and Stephanie Ricketts (30 in 2010).
Wartner and UH freshman Keiki Carlos drove in three runs each in the opener and the game ended after five innings due to the eight-run rule.
Carlos hit a two-run home run in the top of the first inning and Cal State Fullerton tied the game by scoring on an illegal pitch in the bottom of the first and on an RBI infield single in the second.
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UH regained the lead on Leisha Li’ili’i’s two-out single to center in the top of the third. The Wahine pulled away with a four-run fourth inning highlighted by Wartner’s two-run double.
UH put the game away with seven more runs in the fifth. Kelly Majam, Wartner and Jazmine Zamora delivered run scoring singles and Sharla Kliebenstein capped the scoring with a two-run double.
Cal State Fullerton jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second game when Eliza Crawford hit a three-run homer with one out in the bottom of the first.
UH got a run back in the second on back-to-back doubles by Majam and Wartner and tied the game in the fourth on Kliebenstein’s solo homer.
Later in the fourth, Majam was hit by a pitch and Wartner followed with a home run to left field to give UH a 5-3 lead.
UH added three more runs in the sixth with Jessica Iwata driving in two with a double down the left-field line.
Cal State Fullerton closed to 8-4 on Melissa Sechrest’s homer in the bottom of the sixth.
Parnaby allowed one runner to reach base in the seventh, but closed out her 30th complete game of the season.