Box Score

HONOLULU - Kansas (15-13) came back to defeat the Rainbow Wahine 3-1 in the third day of the Bank of Hawaii Invitional softball tournament. Kassie Humphreys fired a two-hit, complete game to pick up her sixth win of the season. UH pitcher Justine Smethurst took the loss, evening her record to 6-6 on the season.

Hawai`i (14-12) scored first, posting a single run in the top of the fourth to take the early lead. Alana Power got a one out, infield single. She moved to second on a Tanisha Milca sacrifice bunt. On the play, the Kansas first baseman's throw was off-line and squirted into rightfield, allowing Power to get to third. She then scored on a wild pitch.

The Jayhawks' answered in the bottom of the fourth. Designated player Serena Settlemeier hit a solo home run over the leftfield fence to knot the game at 1-1.

In the fifth, Kansas scored two runs to take the lead. Stevie Cristosto led the inning off with a double to the right-centerfield gap. She moved to third on a single to left by Nicole Washburn. With runners at first and second, the next batter, Betsy Wilson came through with a base hit to right. That scored Crisosto from third easily and moved Washburn to second. Two batters later, Val Chapple collected the Jayhawks' fourth hit of the inning to load the bases. Chapple's infield hit chased the starter, Smethurst from the game and Paula Blanning was inserted with full base and one out. The first batter up hit a come-backer that was two hot for Blanning to handle cleanly. She made it close though, throwing to catcher Kristi Yoshizawa to try to prevent another run from scoring, but Wilson slid home safely to increase the Jayhawk lead to 3-1. Blanning was able to get the final two outs. The first was on a grounder to third. Clare Warwick threw home to cut down the lead runner. The hot hitting Settlemier then hit a line shot that had Kaulana Gould sprinting towards the right-centerfield fence. But she reached out at the last second and snagged it from the air to squelch the rally.

Smethurst threw 4.1 innings, giving up three runs on six hits while striking out two. Blanning came in and threw 1.2 innings, giving up one hit and one striking out one Jayhawk.

Kansas' Humpreys threw 7.0 innings, giving up the two singles, while walking one and striking out five Rainbow Wahine.

The Rainbow Wahine will battle No.17/16 Northwestern tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. in the final game of the Bank of Hawaii Invitational. The Wildcats are 4-0 in the tournament so far.

-uh-