HAYWARD, Calif. – Just 24 hours after being swept by Holy Names University which ended their five-game winning streak, the Chaminade University softball team was looking to get even.
After failing to capitalizing on their recent trend of late-inning comebacks on Friday, the Silverswords went back to those ways in the matinee game, turning a 5-2 deficit into an 11-6 win, thanks to a six-run, sixth-inning rally.
The 'Swords then completed the Saturday sweep at Chabot College Softball Field by scoring the first five runs in the nightcap before holding on for the 5-4 victory to split the season series. With HNU closing its doors at the end of the spring semester, Saturday was the final meeting between the two foes with Chaminade winning the all-time series, 15-to-13.
Larchelle Tuifao (Ewa Beach, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Kapolei) continued to produce as the team's clean-up hitter with three hits and four RBI on the afternoon. The sophomore finished the series with seven RBI and has a base hit in seven of her last eight games.
Jaeda Cabunoc (Kaneohe, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Roosevelt) and
Isabel Rodriguez (Littleton, Colo./Columbine) got hits in both, extending their hit streaks to five.
Chaminade, which had 22 combined hits on Saturday and 42 in the four-game series, improved to 15-13 overall and 8-10 in the Pacific West Conference.
Holy Names, which showed some power with a home run in all four games, fell to 3-14 and 2-6 in the PacWest.
Game 1: CUH 11, HNU 6
For the second straight day, the 'Swords were greeted at Chabot College with a wind-chill in the high-40s and gusty winds that shot out towards centerfield. After two scoreless frames, Rodriguez led off the third, launching a moon-shot over the left field fence for a solo homer, the freshman's first of her career.
Kailah Gates-Coyaso (Waianae, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Waianae) followed with a double to the right-center gap, then Cabunoc doubled her in to give Chaminade a 2-0 lead.
But the lead would be short-lived as the Hawks scored twice in the bottom of the third, then took the lead in the fourth on a three-run homer to left-center by Iris Bejarano, her second home run in as many games.
In the fifth following a Gates-Coyaso infield single and a
Taryn Fujioka (Aiea, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Pearl City) walk,
Bailey Benson (Cheney, Wash./Gonzaga Preparatory) hit a towering fly to left which glanced off the left fielder's glove for a long single.
Keaolani Takemura (Pearl City, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Mid-Pacific Institute) followed by bringing in Fujioka to help them close to 5-4.
The Hawks made it 6-4 in the fifth, scoring when a pickoff attempt at third on a missed safety squeeze bunt was thrown into left field.
But the 'Swords rediscovered their late-inning magic in the sixth. With runners at second and third, Benson reached when Hawks' pitcher Kelsey Volkmar's throw to first sailed into right field, allowing both runners to score with Gates-Coyaso as the tying run at 6. Tuifao then hit a comebacker off Volkmar's glove, bringing Benson in for the go-ahead run.
The 'Swords weren't finished. Two batters later with the bases loaded,
Alicia Amaya (Bellflower, Calif./Bellflower) brought in two more runs on her single followed by
Bailey Jacobsen (Buena Park, Calif./Cypress) who plated the 10th CUH run with an RBI single. All six runs in the sixth came with two outs.
Takemura's double to right-center in the seventh made it 11-6 then Benson, in relief of Cabunoc, tossed a scoreless seventh to end the game.
Takemura had three hits and drove in two. While Chaminade's top of the order produced six hits, of more notable significance, Jacobsen, Rodriguez and Gates-Coyaso – Chaminade's 7, 8 and 9 batters in the lineup card – each had two hits and totaled five runs including three from Gates-Coyaso.
Benson allowed just one run on three hits in the final 3 1/13 innings to improve to 5-6 on the season.
Volkmar took the loss to fall to 1-2.
Game 2: CUH 5, HNU 4
The 'Swords wasted no time in plating a pair of runs in the first with
Kobe Brown's (Mililani, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Mililani) run-producing single. Tuifao scored the game's second run when the HNU second baseman booted the ball for an error.
Chaminade padded its lead in the second, loading the bases with two outs. Tuifao promptly unloaded them, doubling in all three runners to give them a 5-0 lead.
It remained that way until the fourth. After
Taylor Genera (Norwalk, Calif./Whitney) got two outs, the Hawks loaded the bases on a walk, single and hit batter. It took just one swing for them to get them back into it. Celeste Pacheco then lofted what appeared to be a routine fly ball to center. But the winds, which had gotten stronger as the game progressed, helped carry the ball just over the fence for a grand slam, although Genera was able to get out of the inning without any more damage.
Ashley Ogata (Mililani, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Mililani) was summoned in the fifth but HNU continued to put pressure on the 'Swords by getting baserunners in each of the last three innings. However Ogata managed to work out of major trouble including the potential tying run with one out at third in the fifth, the go-ahead run on base in the sixth and another tying run with one out in the seventh.
It was the latter that proved to be one of the biggest moments of the game. Holy Names' Olivia Lee bounced a two-hopper to
Cheyne Obara (Pearl City, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Pearl City) at second as Kimberlee Walston, the runner at third, made a dash to home. But Obara, the 2021 PacWest Defensive Player of the Year, fired a perfect dart to Takemura at the plate, who tagged Walston to eliminate the potential tying run. Ogata then got a force-out from Fujioka to Obara to wrap up the Saturday sweep.
Despite surrendering the grand slam, Genera allowed just three hits in her four innings of work to improve to 4-2. Ogata tossed three shutout innings to earn her first career save. Chaminade had nine hits in the second game with Fujioka and Tuifao getting two each.
Melody Gomez went two innings and allowed all five runs to take the loss to fall to 1-2. Pacheco proved to be a major thorn for Chaminade pitching, homering twice and driving in 12 with eight hits during the series. She will carry a streak of five straight multi-RBI games into their Hawks' next series against Hawai'i Pacific University and has driven in a run in each of her last six.
The Silverswords continue their NorCal trip Monday at Dominican University of California. First pitch is scheduled for 9 a.m. Hawai'i time (12 p.m. local).
