UH Sports
UH softball team enjoys late-season run
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
Sure last year's seniors were feared hitters. But could they shoot a squirt gun?
A softball season that began with huge offensive pukas is coming to happy local ending this weekend when the University of Hawai'i plays its final home games against San Jose State. In the midst of the Wahine's NCAA regional revival are four seniors with a contagious fondness for winning, occasional weirdness and each other.
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Pitchers Desiree Duran and Janelle Gonzales have thrived in the searing heat of the sport's most demanding position, giving the Wahine realistic postseason promise. Kristin Anderson's enthusiasm has been warmly embraced by this 42-16 team. Tyree Woodruff provides a mellow antidote when it all becomes too frantic.
Seniors, from left, Kristin Anderson, Desiree Duran, Tyree Woodruff, top, and Janelle Gonzales have given the Wahine a unique balance for success this season.
This might be the most balanced team in coach Bob Coolen's 10 years, with a lineup that can light it up from anywhere and three proven pitchers. It might also be the most bizarre, with a spontaneous goofiness that can engulf the entire team and pierce the pressure of a rare WAC pennant race; the Wahine (12-4) go into their final regular-season series a game behind 16th-ranked Fresno State (13-3).
Wet and wild
The Wahine's stress-buster of the moment is the water fight. Their sudden penchant for squirt guns began with trainer Melody Toth and assistant Dee Wisneski and has spread through the team to Coolen.
"I have three squirt guns of various sizes," he admitted. "I was getting decked everytime I turned around so I keep them in strategic places."
As weird as it seems, it is working. The Wahine, diverse and playing their roles to perfection, have won their last eight — and not given up a run the last four. This deep into the season, the game remains the same as it was last fall.
Fun.
"Our focus is definitely on regionals and the World Series," Gonzales said. "We also want to remember to have fun and enjoy what we're doing."
The seniors, denied a third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance last year, might be having the most fun of all.
Woodruff, hitting .304 in four years as a starter, is batting .307 this season. She is the also the new career leader in sacrifices, a record that captures her game perfectly.
"My role is to execute everything on offense," she said. "And, I think I calm people down a bit — at least Kristin when she's all wound up."
Gonzales gives the Wahine an upbeat presence they can always lean on, much the way Russell Lockwood stabilized last year's Warrior volleyball team. It is no coincidence. The two will marry in August.
Gonzales' new role
The last time Hawai'i went to the postseason, it was on Gonzales' right arm. Her all-tournament performance at the last WAC Tournament led to an all-regional performance that brought UH to the brink of the World Series.
The overwhelming performances of freshman Felicity Witt (20-10) and Duran (15-4) have relegated Gonzales to reliever status as a senior. She has responded by going 5-1, with a team-best 1.26 earned run average and the program's second perfect game, which included a record-tying 15 strikeouts.
"It's probably not as much impact as she wanted," Coolen said, "but she's afforded stability for me. I can go to her when "Flea" (Witt) or Desi falter. Janelle has given us some incredible games."
Duran hasn't lost since March in yet another of her late-season runs. The five-time WAC Pitcher of the Week is 7-0 in the conference and will rank among the UH career leaders in nearly all pitching categories when she leaves.
But for all those three have and will accomplish, it is Mililani's Anderson that will be most difficult to replace. Not because she has practically dug a trench in center field with four years of nervous/happy feet, and is on a career pace her final year. Not even because she was an All-American Scholar-Athlete two years ago.
The largest void Anderson will leave involves volume. Her mouth knows only one speed and it is warp, whether she is cheering shamelessly or exhorting teammates with her most passionate "Boss Lady" personality.
Emotional leader
"She contains more emotion and spirit than the whole team combined," Woodruff said.
"In 20 years of coaching, I've never met someone that was, one, as emotional, and two, as loud," Coolen said. "This year she does everything at more than 100 percent — leadership, cheers, in the field, at the plate, the way she practices, the grades she gets.
"Kristin has brought us to where we are right now with her enthusiasm and passion for the game. Everytime we go on the field and she's shouting, I wonder who can take that role next year?"
For the next few weeks, he won't have to worry. These seniors should be around for awhile longer.
SHORT HOPS: Tomorrow (Sat.), all children (ages 4-18) can purchase a $1 food script at the gate, which is good for a hot dog, chips and a soda. The script also enters them in a raffle. ... Also tomorrow, groups of at least 20 people get a special admission price of $2 per adult and $1 per child. ... There will be an autograph session after tomorrow's second game. ... Hawai'i received seven votes in the USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, for the second consecutive week. It is 30th in the Top 25.... All four games this weekend will be televised live on KFVE. ... The Wahine lead the WAC in hitting (.281), hits (445), doubles (70), home runs (21) and runs (216).
