By WES NAKAMA
By WES NAKAMA
Tribune-Herald
HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii water polo team will begin play in the NCAA Tournament at 10:45 a.m. (Hawaii time) Friday against Southern California.
The match is one of four quarterfinal matches at Stanford’s Avery Aquatics Center; the other six participating teams are California, Princeton, Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA and UC San Diego. Friday’s winners will advance to Saturday’s semifinals, and the championship match is set for Sunday.
The Rainbow Wahine (18-8) hosted and won the Big West Tournament two weekends ago, capped by a 9-8 overtime victory against No. 1 seed UC Irvine. In the meantime, UH sophomore utility person Chloe Barr was named Big West Player of the Year, and coach Maureen Cole was named Coach of the Year.
Junior attacker Paula Chillida Esforzado, senior utility player Caity Lopes da Silva and sophomore utility player Claire Nixon each was also named to the All-Big West first team. Chillida Esforzado is a repeat selection.
SOFTBALL WRAPS UP HOME SCHEDULE VS. UC DAVIS: The UH softball team wraps up its home schedule this weekend with a three-game Big West Conference series against UC Davis.
The series will open with a Friday doubleheader starting at 6 p.m., followed by a “Senior Day” single game at 1 p.m. Seniors Leisha Liilii, Kayla Wartner, Jordan Burton and team manager Justine “TJ” Tjaden will be honored following the game.
OCSports Channels 16 (SD) and 1016 (HD) will be televising all three games.
The Rainbow Wahine are 29-22 overall, 10-8 in the Big West after winning two of three games at first-place Cal State Northridge. UC Davis is 18-28, 6-12 after losing two of three home games against Cal State Fullerton.
Brittany Hitchcock was the winning pitcher in both of Hawaii’s victories last weekend, allowing just three runs on six hits in the 4-3 opener and then holding off the Matadors in the 2-1 finale win. Cal State Northridge leads the Big West in scoring.
Hitchcock is now 16-7, with a 2.49 earned run average.
Liilii drove in Wartner with the go-ahead run on Friday, and Rachel Lack hit her eighth home run of the season in Saturday’s victory.
Sophomore Heather Morales continues to lead the team in batting with a .321 average, to go with five home runs and 28 runs batted in.
BASEBALL TEAMS STILL ON ROAD AT UC RIVERSIDE: The UH baseball continues its long Big West road trip with a three-game series at UC Riverside.
The series beganThursday, followed by 3 p.m. games Friday and Saturday. All games will be broadcast live on radio via ESPN 1420 AM (KHLO in Hilo and KKON in Kona).
The Rainbow Warriors are 18-26 overall, 9-9 in the Big West following UH’s first-ever sweep at Long Beach State.
No. 2 starter Tyler Brashears was named Big West Pitcher of the Week after helping to shut out the DirtBags, 1-0, last Saturday. Brashears allowed just four hits and two walks in eight innings pitched, and Waiakea graduate Quintin Torres-Costa closed the deal to earn his team-leading sixth save.
Torres-Costa also got the save in last Friday’s 7-4 victory, pitching a scoreless final two innings with two strikeouts. Torres-Costa has now earned saves in his past five appearances and lowered his earned run average as a reliever to 0.93, with 42 strikeouts in 32 innings.
He also extended his scoreless innings streak to 18 and one-third, covering a span of 11 games.
Hawaii also got an outstanding performance from Sunday starter Jarrett Arakawa, who pitched six scoreless innings and evened his record to 3-3.
Freshman catcher Chayce Ka‘aua, a Hilo High graduate, continued to show his all-around skills by improving his batting average to .277 – second on the team –including a torrid .345 in conference play. He has notched at least one hit in 12 of the past 15 games, including five multi-hit outings, and leads the team in doubles with nine to go along with 16 runs batted in and 17 runs scored.
Ka‘aua also threw out two potential base stealers in Saturday’s game.
Freshman first baseman Eric Ramirez continues to lead the team in batting with a .288 average, 27 RBIs, 20 runs, 28 walks and a .401 on-base percentage.