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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, May 19, 2008

UH SOFTBALL
UH falls to ASU in regional final

 •  We raised the standard for those to come

By Jim McCurdy
Special to The Advertiser

TEMPE, Ariz. — Hawai'i's season ended in the melting pot of the desert heat.

With temperatures in the low 100s, the Rainbow Wahine softball team fell 8-0 to No. 2 Arizona State in five innings at the NCAA Regional yesterday. It was the second straight day the Rainbow Wahine were shut out by the host Sun Devils, who advance to play Northwestern in the Super Regional.

"Way too much firepower for us," Hawai'i coach Bob Coolen said. "ASU has a great team. We just didn't hit our stride today."

Hawai'i, which lost to Arizona State 10-0 Saturday, finished the season with a 40-21 record.

Arizona State (59-5) took a 3-0 lead in the second on a home run to center by Mindy Cowles and an infield RBI single by Jackie Vasquez. The Sun Devils scored once in the first on Kaitlin Cochran's RBI single to left-center.

Hawai'i starter Kate Robinson was pulled after 1 2/3 innings after allowing three runs, five hits and two walks.

"Kate was frustrated from the beginning of the game," Coolen said. "She just didn't make her best pitch."

UH reliever Jessica Morton held ASU to one hit in the third inning, but the Sun Devils broke the game open in the fourth. Three straight singles by Vasquez, Cochran and Krista Donnenwirth pushed ASU's lead to 4-0, and a grand slam to left by Kristen Miller put the game out of reach.

"When you hit a changeup for a grand slam, it's kind of frustrating," Coolen said. "We just had to go with the Kate and Jess show. It worked sometimes since the beginning of May. Against ASU, it didn't work for us this weekend."

Morton allowed five runs, five hits and a walk in 1 2/3 innings.

Vasquez and Cochran each went 2 for 2, and Caylyn Carlson was 2 for 3 with two doubles for Arizona State.

"The expectations of what we have is what you saw," ASU coach Clint Myers said. "They're talented, they're intelligent and they play hard."

Sun Devils starter Katie Burkhart held Hawai'i to three hits, no walks and struck out six in four innings of work.

"I went in there with the plan that I was gonna go at 'em hard, and I wasn't gonna let down," said Burkhart, who held Hawai'i to two hits Saturday.

Kaulana Gould, Clare Warwick and Katie Grimes each singled for the Wahine in this one.

"We didn't want to have the same sort of outcome as we did yesterday," Warwick said. "But she kept the score at zero.

"It's always hard when you've got one goal set in mind, and you don't reach it. But in terms of experience, it's always good."