HONOLULU—The University of Hawai'i softball team (16-19, 9-5 Big West) powered past Cal State Bakersfield, 10-2 in five innings on Friday night at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium. UH starter
Addison Kostrencich earned the complete game win while the Rainbow Wahine offense cranked out 10 runs on 10 hits against the Roadrunners.
Kostrencich improved to 10-6 overall and 6-1 in the Big West with her third-straight complete-game win. She allowed two runs, spacing four hits with a strikeout.
The Rainbow Wahine scored first, posting a run in the opening frame as designated player
Haley Johnson drove in Xiao Gin with a groundout to second for an early 1-0 lead.
The Roadrunners (4-34, 2-14 BW) knotted the score at 1-1 on a solo home run to centerfield by Rylee Price.
Hawai'i however would answer by scoring three runs on three RBI singles by
Cierra Yamamoto,
Ka'ena Keliinoi and
Izabella Martinez to give UH a 4-1 lead.
The Rainbow Wahine then pulled away in the fourth, rallying for six runs. With runners at the corners, Martinez drilled a single to right to score Gin for her second run of the game. Later with the bases loaded,
Dallas Millwood lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Keliinoi from third.
Mya'Liah Bethea then blasted a grand slam—UH's second grand slam in three games—to extend UH's lead to 10-1. For Bethea, it marked her league-leading 10
th home run of the season and her 24
th of her career.
Cal State Bakersfield was able to get one run back in the fifth off an RBI-single by Aariana Harrison which scored Johnson, but it was not enough to avoid the mercy-rule ending in five innings.
CSUB's Kirsten Martinez took the loss, giving up six runs on eight hits with a walk in three-plus innings of work. Sophia Leiva Guerra was able to get the final three outs, allowing four runs on two hits with two walks and a strikeout.
The win was UH's third mercy-rule win of the season—second in conference.
Hawai'i will battle Cal State Bakersfield in a doubleheader on Saturday at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
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