Box Score

HONOLULU - Senior Tyleen Tausaga hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to propel UH to a 6-5 victory over No.15 Nebraska for third place in the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Hawaii Paradise Classic at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium. Junior pitcher Jessica Morton picked up win throwing 3.2 scoreless innings in relief.

It was the second time that the Rainbow Wahine came back with late game heroics to defeat the Cornhuskers. On the opening night of the tournament, UH's Valana Manuma hit a two-run triple in the bottom of the sixth to win, 4-3. It also marked the second time that Tausaga hit a two-run home run to win the game. On Friday, UH beat No.24 Auburn with Tausaga hitting her two-run shot in the bottom of the seventh. UH had trailed 1-0 until that point.

Today in Hawai`i's final game of the tournament, they scored two runs in the bottom of the second inning to take an early lead. Brandi Peiler hit a two-out double to right-center. Hawai`i starting pitcher Kate Robinson then helped herself out with a bloop single that landed in front of a diving leftfielder. On the hit Peiler scored from second. Next, Audrey Andrade hit a pop fly to shallow right. The Huskers' second baseman and rightfielder collided and the ball popped loose allowing Robinson to scoot home from second and Andrade hustled to second base. After a walk to Alana Power, Manuma lined out to the centerfielder to end the inning.

The Cornhuskers responded in the fourth, posting four runs to go in front, 4-2. Devin Porter led the inning off with a single to left. Peiler misfielded the ball and Porter moved to second. After a strike out, Jamie Waldecker hit a ground ball to Robinson on the mound, but she tried to get the lead runner out at three unsuccessfully, leaving runners on first and third with one out. Haley Long then a single to right to score Porter from third. Crystal Carwile then drilled a double to the left-center gap. Peiler and centerfielder Tanisha Milca were running at a full sprint and collided hard. Peiler got up and fired the ball into the infield, but it was a little wild. Both runners scored and Carwile scored on the errant throw. Milca was injured on the play and had to leave the game. Freshman Katie Grimes took Milca's place in the line-up, but as the catcher. That allowed Kaulana Gould to move to center.

The Rainbow Wahine knotted the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the inning. Grimes led the inning off by getting hit by the pitch. Gould then hit a double to right-center, putting runners at second and third. After a fly out to left, Clare Warwick hit a line drive double to the leftfield fence to plate Grimes and Gould.

The Huskers' see-sawed back into the lead in the top of the fourth, going up 5-4. With one out and two runners on, Carwile hit a single to center, but the throw in went off the cut, allowing Waldecker to score from third.

In the bottom of the fifth, with Gould at first, Tausaga stroked an outside pitch to the opposite field over the leftfield fence for what proved to be the winning runs, 6-5. It was Tausaga's second game winning home run of the tournament. She hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the seventh against No.24 Auburn to win that game, 2-1.

Robinson started the game and threw 3.1 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits with two walks and four strike outs. Morton then came in and thew 3.2 innings with two walks and a strike out. She allowed one hit. Hawai`i was able to over come their defense's six errors to win the game. Nebraska stranded 11 runners in the game, including three innings ending with the bases loaded.

It was the second time that the Rainbow Wahine came back with late game heroics to defeat the Cornhuskers. On the opening night of the tournament, UH's Valana Manuma hit a two-run triple in the bottom of the sixth to win, 4-3. And it was the second time that Tausaga hit a two-run home run to win the game. On Friday night, Tausaga won the game in the bottom of the seventh, after trailing 1-0 to No.24 Auburn the entire game.

For the Huskers, Alex Hupp got the start and threw the first 3.0 innings. She gave up four runs on six hits with a strike out and a walk. Ashley DeBuhr came in relief and got the loss in 3.0 innings of work. She gave up only three hits, but one was the two-run homer by Tausaga.

2007 Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic
All-Tournament Team
P - Tracie Adix, DePaul
C - Kaulana Gould, Hawai`i
INF - Stephanie Bean, Portland State
INF - Holly Currie, Auburn
INF - Devin Porter, Nebraska
INF - Clare Warwick, Hawai`i
OF - Meghan Mullin, Nebraska
OF - Linda Secka, DePaul
OF - Kate Sheaks, DePaul
UT - Kate Robinson, Hawai`i

Most Valuable Player - Tylenn Tausaga, Hawai`i

Hawaii will now head to Las Vegas, Nev. for the UNLV Desert Classic where they will face Colorado State, Cal State Northridge, Mississippi State, Cal State Fullerton, and Utah.

-UH-