The Rainbow Wahine (50-16) could only muster two hits off of Arizona starter Kenzie Fowler, who pitched both of the Wildcats wins on Saturday. The freshman threw more than 200 pitches including UA's 4-3 win over defending champions Washington earlier in the day. Arizona (50-12) will now meet Tennessee in a bracket championship game on Sunday.
Hawai'i finished the tournament with a 1-2 record and added four home runs in the tournament to finish the season with an NCAA record 158. UH added one dinger on Saturday as
Traci Yoshikawa blasted her second of the tournament in the third inning.
But that was all the offense UH could string together against Fowler, who struck out 12 Rainbow Wahine, including eight in the final three innings. UH's
Stephanie Ricketts allowed five runs, two earned, and seven hits in 3.2 innings of work. Freshman
Kaia Parnaby came on in relief and struck out five of the eight batters she faced.
The Wildcats used small ball to score the game's first run in the first inning. UA's first three batters bunted including lead-off batter Brittany Lastrapes, who reached on a single and scored after Ricketts wild throw to first on K'Lee Arredondo's bunt attempt.
The Rainbow Wahine answered in the third with Yoshikawa's towering shot over the left field fence tied the score at 1-1. Two days earlier, Yoshikawa hit her first homer lifting UH over Missouri.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Wildcats broke the tie by plating two more runs. Karissa Buchanan and Lastrapes started the inning with consecutive singles. Two batters later, Arredondo's double scored Buchanan and Lastrapes crossed the plate following Stacie Chambers' sacrifice fly.
Arizona tacked on two more runs in the fourth with a two-out rally. Lastrapes roped her third hit of the day to load the bases and Lauren Schutzler hit a liner to second which was booted by second baseman
Dara Pagaduan, who entered the game after an injury to
Jessica Iwata. That error plated two more Wildcat runs to give Arizona a 5-1 lead.
Fowler, who was plagued with illegal pitches during her three appearances in the tournament, settled down by retiring the final eight batters she faced. After getting out of a jam in the fourth after UH had runners at second and third with two outs, she allowed only a walk to
Kelly Majam in the fifth.
UH's magical season saw them capture the Western Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles, win all three games in the Regionals, and upset top-seeded Alabama in the Super Regionals. The Rainbow Wahine won their first Women's College World Series game in dramatic fashion against Missouri, as Yoshikawa hit a two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning. Hawai'i also set numerous school records and Majam finished as the nation's home run leader with 30.
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