Follow the No. 19/23 Rainbow Wahine softball team during its current post-season road trip. All week long HawaiiAthletics.com will feature a blog, “Having a Blast” chronicling the team's post-season journey to the NCAA Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla. UH defeated the top-seed, No. 3/4 Alabama in the Super Regionals to advance to their first ever World Series.

Wahine Softball Post-Season Blog Archive -  Alabama Super Regional -  Stanford Regional -  WAC Tournament

Saturday, June 5, 2010
The 2010 Rainbow Wahine ended their remarkable season with a 5-1 loss to No. 5 Arizona at the NCAA Women's College World Series. Traci Yoshikawa launched the team's NCAA-record 158th home run, but it was not enough to overcome a tough Wildcat squad.

Hawai`i set numerous school records this season, including most runs scored (488), RBI (449), doubles (93), walks (185), hits (578) and home runs (158). Kelly Majam ended her remarkable rookie season as the home run queen of the NCAA with 30 homers this season--which is also a school and conference record. She also set new UH single-season marks in runs scored (81), walks (44), and is second all-time with 60 RBI in a season. Fellow freshman Jessica Iwata also set a new UH single-season record with 21 doubles.

Hawai`i spent the day relaxing, hanging with family at the hotel or at the mall. The team got ready and left the hotel at 6:30 p.m. for the single game against Arizona. After falling behind early, 1-0, the 'Bows knotted the score at 1-1 on Yoshikawa's bomb to leftfield. But that was all the runs UH could muster against the scrappy Wildcats.

The fans at the games--both yesterday and today came out in force and were very pro-Hawai`i. Both nights, the WCWS set new single-session attendance records with tonight's being 9,080--the first time the world series has ever drawn more than 9,000 fans in one session. There were so many well-wishers who were encouraging and supportive of the Rainbow Wahine--it was amazing.

The team will spend tomorrow (Sunday) in Oklahoma City before heading to Tulsa tomorrow night. Some of the players from California will be leaving from Oklahoma City tomorrow to go home: Tara Anguiano, Brynne Buchanan, Kelly Majam, Kaia Parnaby, Stephanie Ricketts, Jenna Rodriguez, and Mikalemi Tagab-Cruz, The rest of us will catch three different flights from Tulsa EARLY on Monday, with our final destination being Honolulu. We will make it to the baggage claim at about 3:30 p.m.

On behalf of the UH softball team, I'd like to thank all of the fans that came and followed us on our LOOOONG, 28-day, five state, seven hotel road trip--we couldn't have done this without you being there. To our fans back home, thank you all for your unwavering support and for watching and cheering us on through to the WCWS. And to our all of our new fans, who packed the stands at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium this week, a big MAHALO to you for coming out in droves to support the Rainbow Wahine. Words cannot express how appreciative we are of the support you've given to the team. MAHALO!!!

Friday, June 4, 2010
The team started the day by visiting the Oklahoma City Memorial Park and Museum. One of the park rangers met us by the reflection pool and told us about the tradition of placing your hand into the pool of shallow water and then holding  your hand on the black marble gates that bracket the water on either end of what was NW Fifth Street. It is said that the hand print will be a part of the memorial forever. The ranger then gave a short informational speech about the time before, during and after the bombing that changed the nation. And he went on to explain all of the significance of the different components that make up the memorial park, like the "Gates of Time," the reflecting pool, the field of emtpy chairs, the Survivor Tree, and the fence. The team then went to the fence which has messages and momentos of love and hope and left their lei on the fence. Then, the UH team went into the museum which takes you from the time before the bombing occurred through the time of the bomb and then the aftermath. ESPN wanted to follow the team away from the field so they captured some poignant moments with the team at the memorial.

Afterwards, the team grabbed some lunch on the way back to the hotel where they relaxed until 4:00 p.m. when we left for the field.

Although the game did not go the way we wanted, the support the team felt was unbelievable. It was the largest single-session attendance in NCAA softball history--8,694 standing room only...the largest crowd a UH softball team has ever played in front of. Hawai`i has a lot of new softball fans here in Oklahoma City.

The team fought hard...the defense made some outstanding plays and the batters battled at the plate--none more than Alex Aguirre, who's 17-pitch at bat (14 straight foul balls) led to a two-run home run for the 'Bows.

After the game, the team had an impromptu autograph session for all of UH's new fans.

Hawai`i will now play in the feature game at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday night against the winner of the Washington-Arizona game.

Action photos courtesy of Dale TItcomb.

Thursday, June 3, 2010
The Rainbow Wahine headed to the field at about 10:00 a.m. When we got to the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, we had a team photo scheduled right at the front of the Softball Hall of Fame building. Fans were stopping members of the team to take photos with players while we were waiting for the photographer. A couple of photos later, and the team drove down to park the vans behind the stadium and then the team walked up the hill to the practice fields.

Hawai`i jumped out to an early, 1-0 lead on Alex Aguirre's solo home run to right-centerfield. Later in the game, the 'Bows found themselves trailing to Missouri, 2-1. But Traci Yoshikawa's two-run homer in the top of the seventh propelled UH past the Tigers, 3-2.

After the game, Aguirre, Yoshikawa, and pitcher Stephanie Ricketts were summoned to the press conference, where they ansered questions from many reporters.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Rainbow Wahine had a busy morning today...the team got dressed in full uniform to film ESPN clips for this week's broadcasts. They had to do a variety of things with the entire team and then individually as well. 

The 'Bows then changed into their practice clothes and headed to the practice field. Teams have 55 minutes on one of the adjacent practice fields and then head to the main diamond where they have another 55 minutes to practice. Hawai`i used their first hour for batting off of Coach Bob and then did defensive drills on the stadium diamond.

After practice, the team headed back to the hotel, grabbing some lunch on the way. Coach Coolen and Kelly Majam had to return later in the afternoon for the official WCWS press conference. The press conferences were divided into two sessions, the earlier one had Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, and Washington (the teams in the bottom half of the bracket). The second session, featured the teams on the top half of the bracket: Hawai`i, Florida, Missouri and UCLA.

Upon returning to the hotel, we found out that Majam and Melissa Gonzalez were both selected to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-American teams. Majam is just the sixth player to earn second team All-American honors and third freshman to accomplish the feat. Gonzalez is the third UH player to be named an NFCA first team All-American...and she is the first American to do so for the 'Bows. Australians Brooke Wilkins (1995) and Stacey Porter (2003) are the only other players from UH to receive the honor.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The 'Bows got up at a reasonable hour, hopefully found some breakfast and then headed of to the University of Oklahoma where they practiced for a couple of good hours. A big MAHALO goes out to Oklahoma head coach, Patti Gasso along with assistant coach (and older sister of Stephanie) Samatha Ricketts for allowing us to use their amazing facility.

After practice, Samantha and Keilani (Stephanie's younger sister who currently pitches for the Sooners) had the team over to their house for a barbecue lunch. It was the team's first home cooked meal in three weeks, so you can imagine how appreciative everyone was!

The team headed back to the hotel and later left again for "Frontier Night" at the Frontier City Theme Park here in Oklahoma City. It was the welcoming event for the Women's College World Series and where they gave Washington's Danielle Lawrie the National Player of the Year Award. The team dressed up in flannel and jeans as requested by the WCWS as "frontier casual" or cowboy-ish...although no one else did. The team ate dinner there (barbecue sloppy joe sort of sandwich with baked beans, corn on the cob, cole slaw, potato salad, and a peach cobbler for dessert) and caught a few rides before loading up the vans to return to the hotel. The head coaches for all of the participating teams, administrators, SID's and trainers all had meetings later that night.