Sixth in an 8-part series of WAC team previews.Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine
2011 overall record: 37-18
2011 WAC record: 14-7 (fourth place)
Returning starters: 6
Never in school history had Hawai'i entered a softball season with higher hopes than it did in 2011.
The Rainbow Wahine began the season ranked in the nation's Top 10 and were coming off their first appearance at the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. With a high-powered offense and two dominant pitchers returning, expectations were through the roof a year ago.
And those lofty expectations probably proved to be their undoing. Hawai'i had a target on its back last year and was one of the biggest games on the schedule for each and every opponent it faced. As the Wahine found out, it's often easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted.
After beginning 2010 unranked, Hawai'i soared to heights it had never reached on the softball field. The Wahine led the nation in home runs, captured their first WAC Tournament championship, won their first Super Regional and reached Oklahoma City that year. But last season, UH couldn't match or come close to that.
Shockingly, Hawai'i finished fourth in the WAC regular season standings, went 1-2 in the conference tournament, and sat home while New Mexico State and Fresno State advanced to the NCAA tourney. A middl
ing RPI in the 50s, caused by a good but not outstanding non-conference schedule, was too much to overcome.That's not to say that Hawai'i didn't field a strong team a year ago. It did. In fact, the Wahine had one of the nation's stingiest pitching staffs with two-time WAC Pitcher of the Year Stephanie Ricketts and tough southpaw Kaia Parnaby. What gives Hawai'i hope for a return to Oklahoma City is the fact both are back again this season.
Ricketts went 22-11 with an impressive 1.58 ERA in 235 innings pitched. She tossed nine complete-game shutouts in 38 starts, holding opponents to a .193 batting average. Ricketts enters her senior season as the school's career strikeout leader (589) and with 74 wins. And how dominant was she a year ago? Her ERA dropped by over a full point from her sophomore season when she led the team to the WCWS. Hawai'i's stunning dropoff on the offensive end, though, meant she finished last year with eight fewer wins than the previous season.
Parnaby returns for her junior season after enjoying an even better season than Ricketts in several categories statistically. Her sterling ERA of 1.28 led the team, but she made just 20 appearances after playing in 35 games as a freshman. Parnaby held opponents to a paltry .181 average, pitched a perfect game, and threw four complete-game shutouts. The crafty lefty allowed just 21 runs all season in 114 innings pitched.
Ricketts and Parnaby will be the keys again to Hawai'i's overall success. Coach Bob Coolen has added freshman pitcher Leisha Li'ili'i to the mix and she arrives with great credentials. Also a feared power-hitting first baseman, Li'ili'i could see significant playing time.
Offensively is where Hawai'i needs to find its groove again. The silence from the Wahine bats wasn't just a WAC story last year. It became a national story. How could a team that shattered NCAA records one season earlier suddenly stop hitting? After smashing a staggering 158 home runs in 2010, Hawai'i hit 102 fewer homers last season to finish with 56 as a team.
The Wahine scored 488 runs in 2010, yet their runs total dropped nearly in half to 246 last season. Likewise, Hawai'i's team RBI total suffered a huge drop, falling from 449 to 224. Its doubles total, too, dropped exactly in half (from 92 to 46), and the team had 213 fewer hits than the previous year.
While Hawai'i doesn't need to reach its 2010 totals in any of those offensive categories to be successful, it will need increased production from a season ago. Strong pitching can only carry a team so far, and Hawai'i scored one or no runs in 13 games. The Wahine scored a total of one run in four games against rival Fresno State, and was shut out in three of the four games.
WAC Player of the Year Jessica Iwata, who's never played a season in the league without winning that honor, is back for her junior campaign. Iwata started every game a year ago and hit .355, leading the team in hits (60), home runs (15) and RBI (44) to garner NFCA All-Region and All-American honors as well.
Kelly Majam, a second team All-WAC selection as a sophomore, returns for her junior season after hitting .290 with nine home runs. Sophomore catcher Sharla Kliebenstein had a strong freshman year and belted 13 home runs. Majam and Kliebenstein, along with Iwata, started all 55 games for Hawai'i last season.
All-WAC outfielder Alex Aguirre is back after a .290 year with six home runs. Seniors Sarah Robinson (.248 BA), Makani Duhaylonsod (.113 BA) and Dara Pagaduan (.133 BA) are also back after combining for 97 starts last season.
Replacements must be found for two huge losses. Jenna Rodriguez and Melissa Gonzalez, who will forever be remembered for their play in UH's 2010 run to the WCWS, are gone after starting every game last season. Rodriguez, second on the team in batting average at .307 last year, won't be in a Wahine uniform after starting 119 consecutive games and hitting 22 home runs the past two seasons.
Gonzalez started 158 games in her 4-year career, including the final 121 straight. A 2010 NFCA first team All-American, she finished with a .324 career batting average that included 30 home runs.
Seven newcomers will vie for playing time, including outfielder Jordan Burton, and Parnaby's younger sister, Lauren, a catcher-outfielder.
With most of its key players returning, especially the one-two pitching punch of Ricketts and Kaia Parnaby, Hawai'i seems like a good bet to make it back to the NCAA Tournament after a one-year absence.
Another somewhat lighter than normal non-conference schedule doesn't give the Wahine a ton of room for error, but the addition of BYU to the conference means everyone could receive a little bit of an RPI boost. Hawai'i would love to get those added RPI points in this, its final season as a WAC softball member before moving to the Big West.
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