LIHU‘E — The No. 14/17 University of Hawai‘i softball team (18-5) overpowered South Dakota State, 9-0 in five innings on Saturday night. Junior pitcher Stephanie Ricketts fired her fourth career no-hitter and earned her 11th win of the season on
LIHU‘E — The No. 14/17 University of Hawai‘i softball team (18-5) overpowered South Dakota State, 9-0 in five innings on Saturday night. Junior pitcher Stephanie Ricketts fired her fourth career no-hitter and earned her 11th win of the season on the second full day of the Pepsi Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament, states a release from the UH athletic department.
Ricketts (11-4) tossed 5.0 innings, with two walks and six strikeouts. She retired the first nine batters in a row before walking two to start the fourth inning. Ricketts snagged a come-backer and erased the lead runner at third for the first out of the inning. Then, Melissa Gonzalez scooped up a grounder to third, stepped on her bag and fired to first for the ground-out double play to end the threat. Ricketts retired the last three in order.
Last season, Ricketts fired a perfect game at Nevada on April 24 and as a junior she had two no-hitters against Louisiana Tech (March 21) and Boise State (May 1).
The ‘Bows got on the scoreboard in the second inning. Sarah Robinson led off with a sharp single through the left side of the Jackrabbits’ infield. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt executed by Gonzalez. Kelly Majam then hit a fly ball to left that was tailing towards the foul line but the left fielder dropped it, allowing Robinson to hustle home from second.
In the third inning, UH erupted for three runs. Jessica Iwata led the inning off with a single that ricocheted of the pitcher’s glove. Alex Aguirre then drew a walk to put runners at first and second. Sharla Kliebenstein followed with a ground ball that bounced off the third baseman directly to the shortstop, who flipped back to the third baseman to get Iwata on the force at third.
Jenna Rodriguez then drove an opposite-field single through the right side of the infield to score a sprinting Aguirre from second. Robinson was next and she too hit behind the runner on a ground out to second that allowed Kliebenstein to score from third. Gonzalez finished the scoring with an RBI single to center that drove in Rodriguez for the 4-0 lead.
Hawai‘i capped its scoring in the fourth inning with five runs. Iwata started the rally with a walk, Aguirre was hit by a pitch, and Kliebenstein drew a walk to load the bases. Rodriguez then hit a clutch single right up the middle to score both Iwata and Aguirre. After another walk to Robinson, Gonzalez then drove in two more runs on a double off the left-center field fence. Majam drove in Robinson from third on a sacrifice fly to right field for UH’s ninth run of the game.
Both Rodriguez and Gonzalez drove in three runs apiece. Rodriguez finished going 2 for 3 with a run scored. Gonzalez went 2 for 2 at the plate with a double and a sacrifice bunt.
SDSU starter Pam Nicholson (1-8) suffered the loss throwing 3.0 innings. She gave up four runs on four hits with three walks. Kori Seidlitz closed the game, giving up five runs on two hits with three walks and one strike out.
Three out of the four tournament teams — Hawai‘i, Longwood and Miami — all finished the round-robin portion of the tourney with identical 2-1 records. By virtue of least runs allowed in the tournament, Hawai‘i earned the No. 1 Seed as they gave up just one run in the first three games.
Longwood yielded four runs to be seeded second and Miami gave up five runs to end up as the third seed in today’s bracket play.
No. 2 Longwood will battle No. 3 Miami at 10 a.m. The Rainbow Wahine will face the No. 4 seed, South Dakota State at 12 p.m.
The two losers of the first two games will play for third place at 2 p.m. while the winners will face off for the tournament championship at 4 p.m.
Game story provided by the UH athletic department.
