IRVINE, Calif. – A big road series win against the top team in the Pacific West Conference Hawai'i Pod standings as netted big honors for the Chaminade University softball team.
For the first time in program history, Silverswords took all three weekly awards handed out by the PacWest.
Second baseman
Cheyne Obara (Pearl City, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Pearl City) was named the PacWest Player of the Week while pitcher/designated player
Taylor Genera (Norwalk, Calif./Whitney) was the Pitcher of the Week while shortstop
Keaolani Takemura (Pearl City, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Mid-Pacific Institute) was the Freshman of the Week.
Obara was a blistering 7-for-12 with three walks during their four-game series against the University of Hawai'i Hilo which the 'Swords won three. Doing what leadoff batters do, the junior scored eight runs while driving in two. In Sunday's Game 1 win, Obara reached base all four times and came around to score in each instance, tying
Shannan Hokama's single-game school record for runs scored. She is the first Silversword to earn conference player of the week honors since Coco Stewart in March 2015.
Genera won both her starts, allowing just four hits and no earned runs in each game which ended via the mercy-rule. She struck out three and walked just one in her 10 innings of work to improve to 5-1 and a 2.16 ERA on the year. At the plate, Genera had four hits and three RBI.
Takemura feasted on Vulcans pitching, going 7-for-11 and eight RBI with three doubles and a triple, the team's first three-bagger since Feb. 27, 2018, a span of 105 games with a weekend slugging percentage of 1.364. She not only did she have multiple hits in all three games she played but had extra bases as well. Takemura is hitting .364 on the year and has a six-game hitting streak including the last four being multi-hit games.
The Silverswords, at 10-8 in the PacWest and 2 ½ games behind UH Hilo (11-4) in the Hawai'i pod standings, will finish the regular season with six straight against Hawai'i Pacific University, starting Tuesday, a makeup from the March 6 twin bill that was postponed due to rain.
