HONOLULU - The Rainbow Wahine softball team (28-20, 9-5 WAC) pulled away from Louisiana State (18-37, 2-6 WAC), winning 9-1 in six innings in a conference game played at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium. Shannon Tabion (9-4, 3-1 WAC) earned the win, giving up one run on eight hits with two walks and two strike outs in the complete-game victory. Kristin Rupp took the loss for the Lady Techsters. In 5.1 innings she gave up nine runs on 12 hits, two walks, and one strike out.

In the first inning, Hawaii scored the first run of the game. With one out in on the inning, Denise Dahlberg hit a single to leftfield. She promptly stole second to get into scoring position for Kaulana Gould who singled up the middle to score Dahlberg.

UH added four more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Ashley Ruff led the inning off with a single to center. Two batters later, Noelle Izumi laid down a sacrifice bunt, but the throw from the third baseman was high and Izumi was safe and allowed Ruff to get to third. The next batter, Kristi Yoshizawa, hit a ground ball to the second baseman, but on the throw to second, the shortstop took her eyes off the ball, allowing all runners to be safe, and it scored Ruff to score. Tara Harbert then stepped to the plate and grounded out the second baseman, but moved the runners to second and third. Tracie Uchima hit a grounder to first, but she had a wild throw to first allowed both Izumi and Yoshizawa to score, making the score 4-0. Dahlberg stepped up and got her second hit of the day, moving Uchima into scoring position. Gould then drove in Uchima with a single to centerfield. The score at the end of four left Hawaii leading 5-0.

But the Lady Techsters answered back in the top of the fifth, scoring a single run off a two-out rally. Amber Miles reached on a single then was driven in by the next batter, Rochelle Sandberg who hit a double to the left-center gap. Louisiana Tech had runners on in every inning, and threatened in the third and fifth innings, but were unable to push anymore runs across the plate. Earlier, in the third, La Tech tried to send Jessi Elson home from second off a base hit by Sandberg to center, but Hawaii centerfielder Harbert gunned her out at the plate with Dahlberg applying the tag.

The Rainbow Wahine ended the game with a final rally in the bottom of the sixth. Dahlberg led the inning off with a stand-up double that bounced off the 200 ft. sign. Gould followed with another double to score Dahlberg. A wild pitch moved Gould to third then Tausaga was walked and Jennifer Hackett pinch ran for her. Hackett stole second to leave both runners in scoring position. Two batters later, Dena DePompa drove in Gould from third. With runners on first and third, UH executed a double steal that allowed Hackett to score from third and left DePompa at second. Later, Yoshizawa ended the game with a walk-off double that scored DePompa to end the game with the score, 9-1 by the 8-run rule.

For Hawaii, Gould was 3-3 with a double, a run scored, a walk, and three RBI; Dahlberg was 3-3 with two runs scored and a sacrifice bunt; DePompa was 2-4 with a run scored and one RBI; Izumi went 2-3 with one run; and Yoshizawa was 1-4 with a double.

The Lady Techsters managed to get eight hits for the game and Amber Miles was 2-3 with a run; Sandberg was 2-2 with a double and an RBI.

The two teams will play the final game of the series in about 20 minutes.

Game statistics