HONOLULU – The Chaminade University softball team rallied from a six-run deficit on Sunday to defeat Hawai'i Pacific University, 9-7, at Silversword Field at Sand Island Park, taking the three-game series in the season's final meeting between the two in-city rivals.
Five Silverswords had two hits in their 12-hit attack to help them win their first three-game series this season and salvage a season split with both teams winning three games each. The Sharks took two of three back in February.
The 'Swords scored seven times in the bottom of the fifth after trailing 7-2 in the top of the inning. Down by as many as 6-0, the comeback was the largest deficit overcome for a win in school history.
Freshman second baseman
Mimi Smith (Redondo Beach, Calif./Redondo Union) drove in a career-high four runs for Chaminade, which won consecutive games for the first time this season. They have also won four of their last six, which improved to 8-34 overall and 7-20 in the Pacific West Conference while HPU fell to 14-25 and 8-13. The game also counted towards the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge standings.
A complete antithesis to recent meetings where the teams totaled five or fewer runs in six of the last 12 meetings, the combined 16 runs are the most in the series since April 24, 2023 when HPU won a 10-6 slugfest. The last 12 meetings have also been decided by two runs or less.
The outlook appeared bleak early with Hawai'i Pacific posting three runs in the first and second innings to break out to a 6-0 lead. Smith got CUH on the board with a two-run single, cutting the deficit to 6-2.
The Sharks made it 7-2 in the top of the fifth with one out, where they loaded the bases and threatened to put the run-rule in effect. However, reliever
Vanessa Pena (Paramount, Calif./Paramount) worked out of the jam with a strikeout then an inning-ending force out at second.
Fittingly, Peña led off the bottom of the fifth with what appeared to be at the time a modest single up the middle.
Bailey Jacobsen (Buena Park, Calif./Cypress) followed with a base knock followed by
Larchelle Tuifao (Ewa Beach, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Kapolei) whose nine-pitch at-bat ended with a walk to load the bases.
Summer Buck (Honolulu/Kaiser) reached on an error but managed to push Peña across for the 'Swords' first run of the inning. One out later,
Desiree Bravo (Corona, Calif./Mt. San Antonio College/Centennial HS) made it 7-4 with an RBI single, prompting a Sharks pitching change.
Taneia Simanu (Mililani, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Mililani) then greeted reliever Angelica Oseguera with an RBI sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 7-5.
Smith then dropped a bloop double where centerfielder Hoku Ching's diving effort was to no avail, allowing Buck to score as well as Bravo, who motored all the way from first as the tying run. Fujioka then hit a flare that landed just inside the left field line to bring in Smith as the go-ahead run. But the 'Swords double-fest wasn't done as Peña did the same with an opposite field two-bagger down the left field line to plate Fujioka and a 9-7 CUH lead.
Peña then worked around single HPU runners in the sixth and seventh, retiring the Sharks on just eight pitches in the final inning to complete the epic rally.
Fujioka, Peña and Jacobsen – Chaminade's top of the order – each had two hits as did Bravo and Smith, the latter who has five base knocks and has driven in six in her last four games. Peña also tossed 4 2/3 innings of relief, allowing just one run with two Ks to earn her second win of the season.
Oseguera was charged with the loss in her 1 2/3 innings of work. Starter Taylor Thompson, who baffled Chaminade hitters on Saturday with 16 fly ball outs, had eight outs in the air in the first four frames on Sunday before the 'Swords got to her with three hits during their comeback inning. HPU totaled 11 knocks with Makayla Pagampao driving in three.
The Silverswords are back in action on Monday, April 7 when they begin a three-game series against Biola University at Silversword Field. First pitch of the doubleheader is at 12 p.m.
