UH softball rebounds to claim series win

The Rainbow Wahine softball team split a doubleheader with UC Davis on Saturday to emerge from the opening weekend of Big West play with a series win.

After UC Davis rallied to a 7-6 win in the opening game, UH right-hander Brittany Hitchcock tied a career-high with 11 strikeouts and freshman shortstop Angelique Ramos hit a tiebreaking home run in the fourth inning to propel UH to a 6-2 win in the deciding game of the series.

UH, which won Friday’s series opener 9-1 in six innings, hit .398 in the series with five home runs, including three on Saturday. Heather Morales hit UH’s first homer of the day, a towering two-run shot to left field that gave UH a 3-1 lead in the first game.

But UC Davis answered with the long ball, tying the game on Ashley Lotoszynski’s three-run homer in the third and taking the lead on Maddie Rojas’ two-run shot to right in the fourth.

UH third baseman Nicole Lopez answered with a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning, but the Aggies pieced together a two-out rally in the fifth and reclaimed the lead when Isabella Leon singled in Lotoszynski.

UC Davis right-hander Katie Kibby held off UH the rest of the way, escaping in the sixth when Lopez’s line drive hung up just enough for UCD left fielder Marissa Jauregui to make a knee-high catch to strand two UH runners.

Both teams scratched out single runs in the first inning of the finale with UH tying the game when Sarah Muzik scored on the front-end of a first-and-third double steal.

“It’s whatever they give us as a team,” UH coach Bob Coolen said. “We noticed they were giving us home and we took it.”

Ramos gave the Wahine the lead with her fourth homer of the season and UH broke away with a three-run outburst in the fifth. Lopez looped an RBI double just inside the right-field line and Morales drilled a two-run single up the middle.

Ramos and Morales both hit .545 in the series, going 6-for-11. Muzik went 5-for-10 and Lopez hit .455 with two home runs. Muzik and Lopez are tied for the team lead at .374 overall.

Saturday’s doubleheader closed UH’s 27-game homestand. The Wahine play at Cal State Northridge in a three-game series starting Friday.