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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, May 12, 2003

UH opens against LSU

 •  Seven Rainbow Wahine named All-WAC

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

A trio of Top-15 opponents are in Hawai'i's NCAA Softball Regional, and 20 final exams are still to be taken. The Rainbow Wahine remain exuberant.

The 'Bows gathered to watch the live broadcast of the NCAA brackets yesterday and the mood was upbeat.

They cheered when they were left out of top-ranked Arizona's region. They cheered louder when their names were not called to Fresno, Calif., with second-ranked UCLA.

Hawai'i (37-18) cheered loudest when it found itself in Austin, Texas, where it will play 12th-ranked Louisiana State Thursday at 4 a.m. HST. The fourth-seeded Tigers are 49-16. They have the country's sixth-winningest pitcher in junior Kristin Schmidt (32-12).

An upset over LSU would probably vault the fifth-seeded Rainbow Wahine into a second-round game against top-seeded and third-ranked Texas. The Longhorns are led by sophomore Cat Osterman, seen here two years ago blowing pitches by the world's best hitters in the U.S. Cup. She is now leading the country in earned-run average (0.33) and strikeouts, with two-plus per inning.

Hawai'i clearly had no fear yesterday. It has won 15 of its last 16, captured its first Western Athletic Conference title, hit the seams off the softball and ridden pitcher Melissa Coogan's right arm into "the zone."

At the close of yesterday's get-together, the team watched video of the final three outs at Louisiana Tech that clinched the WAC. They smiled at their spontaneous celebration, laughed as coach Bob Coolen was drenched with water, then grew quiet as they saw the tears in his eyes in Ruston.

That day clinched their invitation to the NCAA Tournament. Yesterday was only a time to savor the past and find out "who" and "where."

"I could tell from the fall there was definitely something there," senior Kate Judd said. "It had a lot to do with the kids that came in. They brought so much. They lifted everybody else up. We felt from the beginning that something good was going to happen."

It has, with Coogan grinning and bearing the brunt of it as she pitched so meticulously during the closing surge. At 29-9, she is just behind Schmidt in national statistics. Her confidence rose with every win and an increasingly imposing batting order anchored by Stacey Porter's hitting.

All Coolen wants to do now is let his team loose.

"I can't go get all the stats for all these teams and shove it in my players' faces," Coolen said. "We haven't done that all year. I've known what we were capable of doing against certain teams, but I need to know what the other teams are capable of doing against us and only give a few indications to our team. Then just tell them to play our game."

It won't be easy with three ranked teams (Arizona State is 15th) in their double-elimination, eight-team regional, but it has worked so far this season.

The 'Bows leave tonight for their sixth NCAA regional. Yesterday, they did not care where they went, but it was clear they were relieved to avoid Fresno, site of so many WAC losses, and Tucson, where they went two and out two years ago in the NCAAs.

Austin might be more miles than they would like to travel after a frequent-flier regular season, but that didn't matter. The 'Bows are hot and happy.

"To go some place new is exciting," Coolen said. "The last little NCAA criteria for a host site was to afford a total student-athlete experience. That's what I wanted for our players. We've never been to Austin."


SHORT HOPS: The eight regional winners advance to the College World Series, May 22-26 at Oklahoma City. ... Hawai'i beat Texas, 5-3, on March 14 at the Kia Classic in California. The Longhorns did not use No. 1 pitcher Cat Osterman. ... If UH beats LSU Thursday, it plays the winner of Texas-Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Friday morning. If UH loses, it plays Thursday night against the loser.