KANEOHE, O'ahu, Hawai'i – The Chaminade University softball team opened a four-game series against No. 10 Concordia Irvine Sunday and came about as close to beating the perennial powerhouse as they ever have.
The Silverswords showed plenty of fight in their 1-0 loss to the two-time defending Pacific West Conference champions at Howard Okita Field on the Hawai'i Pacific University's windward campus.
The 'Swords had the tying and winning runs on board in the bottom of the seventh but couldn't get the clutch hit to pull off the upset of the 10-ranked squad in the nation according to the NFCA Coaches Poll.
Chaminade fell to 2-3 overall and 0-3 in the PacWest while Concordia improved to 12-2 and 6-1. The 'Swords are also 1-15 against the Eagles with their only official win in the all-time series coming in the 2000 Ko'olau Classic.
The day actually started off in doubt. Heavy rains late Saturday into early Sunday morning which rolled through O'ahu saturated the 'Swords' home field of Patsy T. Mink Central O'ahu Regional Park, rendering the field unplayable. The venue was then switched to HPU's Okita Field and shortened from two games to a single contest.
But once the field was prepped, the fans were treated to a pitchers' duel between
Madelyn Stockslager (Torrance, Calif./South) and Concordia All-American Callie Nunes. It was just the second head-to-head meeting between two of the top hurlers in the conference and first since March 5, 2018 when both were freshmen.
Stockslager faced traffic throughout including a bases-loaded situation in the second but managed to work out of trouble. Meanwhile Nunes was on, allowing just three base runners through six innings. One of the base runners was freshman
Kobe Brown (Mililani, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Mililani) who led off the third inning with a scorching double down the leftfield line for her first career base hit.
In the top of the fourth, Sarah Kretschmar's sacrifice bunt attempt toward third base was thrown just wide of second baseman
Cheyne Obara (Pearl City, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Pearl City) covering first. That allowed CUI pinch-runner Julia Covarrubious to make the turn at third and score what was ultimately the game's only run.
However Stockslager still managed to work out of trouble even when CUI threatened to add more runs. In the fifth, a one-out double by Sydney Sprinkle was wasted when she was picked off at second by catcher
Kailah Gates-Coyaso (Waianae, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Waianae) and thrown out by Obara trying to steal third. It was Gates-Coyaso's fourth runner caught stealing this season. Stockslager also induced several inning-ending weak ground-outs and pop-ups.
Then with two outs in the seventh,
Malia Ka`akimaka-Moisa (Ewa Beach, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Campbell) ripped Nunes' first pitch to dead center which hit off the base of the fence 220 feet away, easily a home run at CORP Softball Field.
Brown was then unintentionally-intentionally walked to put the winning run on board. But Nunes got her eighth strikeout to end the game.
Stockslager scattered six hits and was saddled with the loss to fall to 0-2. The lone run she allowed unearned which dropped her ERA to 2.29.
Nunes got the win to improve to 6-0 on the season. She also allowed just two free passes, a much different story after she walked 14 Silverswords in two games in Irvine last year. However, the 'Swords did make hard contact against the hard-throwing righty including a deep flyout to center by Brown in the fifth which, like Ka'akimaka-Moisa's drive in the seventh, was home run distance at CORP.
The Silverswords and Eagles will have a full day of softball on Monday to help make up for Sunday's scrubbed Game 2. The teams will play their scheduled doubleheader which will be moved into town at Sand Island Field Park with an earlier first pitch time at 10:30 a.m.
The second game will start 20 minutes after the first with a curfew time of 2:45 p.m.
A third game, the makeup of Sunday's second-game washout, will then shift to Chaminade's normal home field of CORP Softball Complex with a first pitch time of 5:30 p.m., pending if the field is playable.
Live audio of all three games – if the weather cooperates – will be streamed on GoSwords.com.
