Hawai'i softball team wraps up Malihini tourney at 5-0

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Even though it had already clinched the title of its Malihini Tournament, a perfect finish was still important for the Hawai'i softball team.

Melissa Coogan retired the last seven batters she faced. Advertiser library photo

Rain earlier yesterday washed out the Boston College-Loyola Marymount game and the make-up B.C.-Hawa'i contest, which was postponed by rain Thursday.

The tournament title was an important tuneup for UH (14-7), which heads for this week's Kia Klassic at Cal State-Fullerton.

"This was a good tournament to see where we're at after two weeks off," UH coach Bob Coolen said. "Our team was really fresh. They hit the ball well. Pitching was strong. It was just a real good tournament to set ourselves up for the three top 10 teams we're going to face when we go to Fullerton."

Coogan (11-2), named the Outstanding Pitcher of the tournament, won four of UH's five games in the round-robin Malihini tournament.

She escaped a one-out, second-and-third jam in the second inning when she struck out Melissa Pace and got Marce Ross to ground out back to her.

"I've just been working on making my pitches move," Coogan said.

She had to be on top of her game because her counterpart Stacey Evans (4-3) entered the game with a 0.33 earned run average.

"She spins the ball well," Coolen said of Evans. "She never hits the white of the plate."

But the left-handed hitting Tracie Uchima got a clutch hit off Evans in the third. Marie Jackson led off with a double and remained there when Justina Kahaku popped a sacrifice attempt to the pitcher. Uchima came up and pulled Evans' pitch off first baseman Jessica Kensy's glove that deflected into foul territory to score Jackson to give UH a 1-0 lead.

"It was a middle, inside pitch, so it was a nice one to just turn on," Uchima said.

The Rainbows stole their insurance run in the sixth. With one out, Kate Judd walked and was lifted for pinch runner Ashley Ruff. After Trisha Ramos popped out to shortstop, Ruff took third on Denise Dahlberg's single to right-center. With Jackson at the plate, Dahlberg broke for second after a called strike, drawing a throw from catcher Julie Hibner. But the speedy Ruff beat the return throw home as Dahlberg took second to complete the double steal.

Coogan retired the last seven batters she faced.

Her defense also made some nice plays, such as when second baseman Noelle Izumi turned a fourth-inning double play, and when Uchima made a running catch toward the line of pinch hitter Jennifer Moore's fly to right for the second out of the seventh inning.

"We talked about (defense) going in, about having a really good fielding percentage and making minimum errors," said Coogan, who lowered her ERA to 1.08. "We did a good job of going through with it."

The 16-team, four-pool Kia Klassic starts Wednesday.