Monday, May 11, 1998
Wahine selected
to NCAA softball
tourney
UH plays Pacific on Friday
By Dave Reardon
in the first round of the double-
elimination regional
Special to the Star-BulletinAfter three years, the University of Hawaii softball team only had to wait three seconds.
That's how long it took for the NCAA in its selection broadcast to announce that the Wahine are headed to Tucson, Ariz., for postseason play.
No. 2-seeded Hawaii opens the Region 1 tournament Friday at 1 p.m. against third-seeded Pacific (27-20).
In the other Region 1 first-round game, host Arizona (59-3), the top seed and defending national champion, plays fourth-seeded Niagara (22-17) at 3:30. Play continues Saturday and Sunday in the double-elimination event, with the survivor advancing to the College World Series in Oklahoma City.
The Wahine and their supporters gathered at Murphy's Bar & Grill yesterday for a satellite showing of the NCAA selections. The suspense ended immediately as Hawaii was the first team of 32 in eight regionals named on the selection broadcast.
Although a virtual lock to earn a postseason berth, a cheer of relief echoed through the downtown establishment when "Hawaii" appeared on the screen.
The Wahine finished the regular season No. 10 nationally with a 45-13 record and in second place in the Western Athletic Conference. They won their last eight games.
"I was positive that we would go somewhere," senior catcher and co-captain Aiko Okamura said. She added that being sent to the same regional as No. 1-ranked Arizona, with its gaudy 59-3 mark, doesn't bother her.
"I think we can win. No, I know we can win," Okamura said. "Them being No. 1 just gives us more incentive to play well."
Hawaii beat Pacific, 6-3, in extra innings this season.
"Their pitcher, Brandee McArthur, had a lot of success against us when we were in the Big West," UH coach Bob Coolen said. "She had us on the ropes this year, 3-2, but we tied it up in the last inning and won in extra innings. I know she's going to want us bad."
Coolen added that Pacific is a different team now. The Tigers, who were plagued by injuries when they played UH, won 14 of their last 21 games.
"Their coach (Brian Kolve) just called us," Coolen's wife, Nancy, said last night. "He and Bob are friends. Sometimes they room together on recruiting trips. I told him that won't be happening on this trip."
Hawaii's last regional appearance was three years ago in South Carolina. The Wahine have only three players with postseason experience: seniors Kehau Cofran, Tia Morenz and Okamura. Only two of them, however, played in that regional.
"I didn't dress out," Okamura said. "I was the manager, the 19th player on an 18-player team. This is definitely better."
Okamura has gone from unrecruited walk-on to starting catcher and team leader.
"I knew who she was (when she was in high school) because I'd seen Roosevelt (High) play," Bob Coolen said. "But we were deep at catcher and I left it at that."
But when Okamura called Coolen for information on how to get into school and if she could walk on, he thought again.
"That showed me something, that the initiative and allegiance was already there," Coolen said. "She was a little short on her first SAT score. But she's been a scholar-athlete since her second semester and she's done a great job behind the plate."
Among the elite
The Wahine are ranked in the top 25 in the nation in one poll and three statistical categories:
USA Today/NFCA poll, 10th
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
