LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Three University of Hawai'i softball players earned National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-West Region honors. Callee Heen was named to the all-West Region first team while Brittany Hitchcock and Nicole Lopez were both voted to the second team. A total of 392 student-athletes from 163 programs received 2019 NFCA Division I All-region accolades on Thursday.
 
Heen, a junior first baseman/catcher from Hollister, Calif., is the first Rainbow Wahine to earn all-West Region first team honors since Kaia Parnaby and Kelly Majam did the same in 2013. She finished first in the Big West with 15 home runs and 31 walks—both career-highs for Heen. She also hit career-highs and team-highs with a .374 batting average, .789 slugging percentage and .509 on-base percentage. Heen also led UH with 14 multiple-RBI games. She hit safely in 31 games and was walked or hit-by-pitch another 11 times to reach base safely in 42 of the 48 games that she played this season. Heen also was second on the team with 14 multiple-hit games.  Heen started 30 games at first base and 18 at catcher this season. She was named Big West Player of the Week once this season (April 5). Last year, Heen was the only Rainbow Wahine to earn all-West Region honors when she earned a spot on the second team as a sophomore.
 
Hitchcock, a sixth-year senior pitcher from Huntington Beach, Calif., recorded a career-best 20-8 record while posting a career-low 1.76 ERA in 175.1 innings pitched. She is UH's first 20 game winner since Parnaby recorded 39 wins in 2013. She finished second in the Big West in ERA and wins. This season, she amassed 22 complete games in 27 starts with six complete game shutouts and one save. She led the league in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.35) as she tallied just 26 walks to 113 strikeouts for the year. Hitchcock finished her career ranked in the Top 5 in several UH career record book categories including: games started (No. 2 – 124); complete games (T-No. 3 – 89); appearances (No. 3 – 139); wins (No. 4 – 75); strikeouts (No. 4 – 512). Hitchcock was tabbed Big West Pitcher of the Week in two of the last three weeks of the season (April 29 & May 6). This is Hitchcock's third NFCA all-West Region honor. She earned all-Region third-team honors twice before in 2015 & '17.
 
For Lopez, a senior third baseman from 'Aiea, O'ahu, this was the first year she garnered all-Region honors. This year, she led the Big West with a career-high 45 runs scored. She finished hitting a career-high .353 batting average with a career-high 59 hits. She recorded a career-high 12 doubles and tied her career-high with 12 home runs. Lopez also led UH going 6-for-6 in stolen bases.  She hit safely in 39 of UH's 49 games. Lopez also led the 'Bows with 14 multiple-hit games and had the team's longest hitting streak this year at 13. She reached base safely in the last nine-straight games of the season.  Lopez was tabbed twice as Big West Player of the Week this season (Feb. 25 & April 29).
 
The awards honor softball student-athletes from the Association's 10 regions with first, second and third-team selections. NFCA member coaches from each respective region voted on the teams, and all the honorees now become eligible for the 2019 NFCA Division I All-America squads. 
 
It is the most NFCA All-West Region players UH has had since 2013 when Parnaby (first team), Majam (first team), and Jazmine Zamora (second team) earned the honors.