For the second game in a row, Hawai'i won in dramatic fashion. Last week,
Jenna Rodriguez's two-run walk-off home run defeated top-seeded Alabama in the Super Regionals.
Stephanie Ricketts pitched a complete game for UH (50-14), which is making its first appearance in the WCWS. Ricketts scattered six hits and struck out six. Missouri's Kristin Nottelmann pitched a complete game and took the loss for the Tigers (51-12), who fall to the loser's bracket against Florida on Saturday.
Catcher
Katie Grimes led off the seventh inning with a single. Yoshikawa, the ninth-batter in the order, put UH ahead with her 12th home run of the season, just clearing the right-center field wall. Ricketts, with the help of a diving catch by
Alex Aguirre in leftfield, put the Tigers down in order in the bottom half giving Hawai'i its third win of the season when trailing after six innings.
The Rainbow Wahine got on the scoreboard in the second inning with a solo home run by Aguirre, her 12th of the season. The Tigers answered in the third. Leadoff batter Rhea Taylor beat out an infield single and advanced to second on the wild throw first baseman
Amanda Tauali'i. Two batters later, Nicole Hudson ripped a double over rightfielder
Kanani Pu'u-Warren, scoring Taylor.
Hawai'i threatened in the top of the fourth with a lead-off walk by
Melissa Gonzalez. Two batters later, Pu'u-Warren singled to right moving pinch-runner
Brynne Buchanan to third. However, Tauali'i popped up to end the threat.
The Tigers broke the tie in the fifth with a lead-off homer by Taylor, who finished the game 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Pu'u-Warren and
Kelly Majam each had two hits for Hawai'i.
-UH-
