Rainbow Wahine face Cal in home opener

Aside from some last-minute details to check off, the renovated Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium is ready for its official debut.

The Rainbow Wahine broke in the new field with an exhibition on Feb. 11 before embarking on a nearly two-week road trip. They returned to Manoa at 6-6 and open their first homestand on the turf by taking on No. 15 California on Wednesday.

“Now watching the other teams come in and having a whole slate of games the next three weeks, it’ll be good to see how (the field) handles it,” UH coach Bob Coolen said, adding he’s “excited about opening it up and excited about it coming to completion.”

The Wahine open a run of three tournaments over the next 19 days with the five-day Texaco Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament, starting with Wednesday’s televised matchup with the Golden Bears, and — perhaps — Kamehameha graduate Kamalani Dung.

“It was a struggle being on the road for 13 days so these next three weeks are going to be test to see how strong we are mentally and physically,” UH third baseman Nicole Lopez said. “I’m hoping we can bounce back from that and move on.”

The 7 p.m. game will be preceded by a ceremony to commemorate the first game on the new field. Sen. Brian Taniguchi, who was instrumental in securing the funding for the building of the softball facility in 1998 as well as its latest renovation, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Along installing artificial turf around a new infield and padding along the fencing, “they’ve done a lot of extra stuff,” Coolen said of the $3.4 million project.

“They fixed the right-field batting cage. They put rubber in the dugouts so people don’t slide on their cleats on cement. Protective netting was a priority for the committee. … It’s just so much better. The padding in the outfield and the sides, major league padding. Now it’s a matter of taking care of it.”

Following the pregame festivities, the Wahine face their biggest test to date with the matchup against Cal (15-1) in the first of six games in this week’s tournament. UH will also face Longwood (6-4) on Thursday, East Carolina (6-9) on Friday, UTEP (9-7) on Saturday and close the weekend with a doubleheader against UTEP and James Madison (9-2) on Sunday.

“We’re going to face a lot of tough opponents this weekend,” Coolen said. It’s a formidable first weekend and another formidable week after that.”

The Golden Bears were a regular visitor to the state until skipping the trip last year to play in a tournament in Puerto Rico. They return hitting a collective .334 with 12 home runs and 24 stolen bases in 28 attempts.

Coolen and Lopez expect to see Dung in the circle for the Bears in Wednesday’s game. Dung transferred to Cal after earning Mountain West Conference pitcher of the year honors at Fresno State last year.

The junior right-hander returns to Hawaii riding a blazing start in Berkeley. She enters the week at 7-0 in eight starts with a 1.63 earned-run average. She has 50 strikeouts against 13 walks in 43 innings.

“I played against her four years, more than that actually, since middle school,” said Lopez, a former All-State pick at Mid-Pacific. “It’s good she gets to be home and play in front oh her family. Being able to to open up against Cal in our new stadium that’s a blessing.”

Cal coach Diane Ninemire also has the option of handing the ball to Zoe Conley (8-1, 0.95), who began her college career at Cal State Northridge. Dung and Conley have handled all of Cal’s pitching duties so far this season.

Lopez emerged from UH’s roller-coaster road trip leading the Wahine at the plate at .410. Sophomore Callee Heen is hitting .324 and is UH’s leading run producer with three home runs and 12 RBIs.

UH followed up a 5-2 run at the Marucci Desert Classic in Las Vegas by dropping doubleheaders to Loyola Marymount and Weber State in Los Angeles. The Wahine closed the 12-game trip with a 6-3 win over Weber State on Saturday.

“It’s good to be home finally … but we needed those games and those playing conditions because we’re so blessed to be playing here in Hawaii,” Lopez said. “Going away and having to play in the cold and doubleheaders, all the different conditions, will help us push through this next month.”

This week’s schedule:
Wednesday
Game 1: 7 p.m. – Hawai’i vs. California

Thursday
Game 2: 1:00 pm – UTEP vs. California
Game 3: 3:30 pm – UTEP vs. Longwood
Game 4: 6:00 pm – Hawai’i vs. Longwood

Friday
Game 5: 11:00 am – California vs. James Madison
Game 6: 1:30 pm – UTEP vs. James Madison
Game 7: 4:00 pm – Longwood vs. East Carolina
Game 8: 6:30 pm – Hawai’i vs. East Carolina

Saturday
Game 9: 11:00 am – East Carolina vs. California
Game 10: 1:00 pm – East Carolina vs. James Madison
Game 11: 3:00 pm – Longwood vs. James Madison
Game 12: 5:00 pm – Hawai’i vs. UTEP

Sunday
Game 13: 9:00 am – California vs. Longwood
Game 14: 11:30 am – East Carolina vs. UTEP
Game 15: 2:00 pm – Hawai’i vs. UTEP
Game 16: 4:00 pm – Hawai’i vs. James Madison