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HONOLULU—No. 9/10 California (20-2) held off the No. 16/20 University of Hawai`i softball team (22-8), 3-1 on the third day of the Chevron Spring Fling Tournament. UH starter Stephanie Ricketts—who held the Golden Bears to just three hits—suffered the loss in a complete game effort.

 

The Golden Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Jolene Henderson led the inning off with a hard hit back up the middle. Frani Echavarria followed with a single to left, but a fielding error allowed Henderson and Echavarria to both advance to into scoring position. Victoria Jones then struck out swinging but reached first on a passed ball that allowed Henderson to score from third. Jordan Wallace then missed a bunt and Echavarria was caught in a run-down between third and home and was out catcher-to-short-to-third. Wallace eventually was hit by the pitch to put runners at the corners. Lindsey Ziegenhirt then hit a grounder to second base that allowed Jones to score from third to give Cal the 2-0 lead.

 

Hawai`i cut their deficit in half when Kelly Majam led the third inning off with a solo home run over the right-centerfield fence. It was Majam's 36th career home run that moved past Amanda Tauali`i for third all-time in the UH career record book for home runs.

 

The Rainbow Wahine then rallied in the bottom of the fourth but didn't come up with any runs. Sharla Kliebenstein led off with a line-drive double to the right-centerfield gap. She moved to third on a ground out to second. Sarah Robinson then walked and Jocelyn Enrique reached on a fielding error by the third baseman to load the bases. But Cal starter, Henderson, got a pop-up to first and a fly out to left to thwart the rally.

 

Cal added one run in the top of the seventh with a two-out rally. Ziegenhirt drew a walk and pinch runner Diane Leider came in for her and scored on the Ashley Decker's double to leftfield.

 

Ricketts (13-6) gave up three runs on three hits with a walk and six strike outs.

 

Henderson (18-2) gave up the one home run while scattering five other hits with a walk and nine strike outs.

 

Hawai`i, Cleveland State, and Iona all ended with identical 1-3 records in the “pool-play” section of the tournament. The seeding tie-breaker was least amount of runs scored. Iona gave up 22 runs and CSU yielded 19 runs while UH gave up nine. Therefore Hawai`i is the No. 3 seed, Cleveland State is No. 4, and Iona is No. 5.

 

Hawai`i will face BYU on Sunday at 2:00 pm with the winner of that game advancing to the tournament's championship game at 4:00 pm against the winner of No. 1 Seed California vs. No. 4 Seed Cleveland State (who defeated Iona 2-1 on Friday night's first bracket game).

                                                                                            -UH-