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Saturday, May 6, 2000

Sea Warriors stay
alive in PacWest
tournament

By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin

Despite some sloppy play yesterday during the first round of the Pacific West Conference postseason softball tournament, host Hawaii Pacific advanced to today's championship round in the double-elimination tournament.

The Sea Warriors were to face Western Washington again today at 10 a.m. in a loser-out contest. The Vikings lost their second game yesterday to top-seed Humboldt State, 2-1.

The winner of the 10 a.m. contest must beat Humboldt State twice today in order to capture the PacWest crown.

In yesterday's first game, HPU fell to Western Washington, 3-0. The Sea Warriors rebounded to win their later game against Western New Mexico, 1-0.

In the opener, Sea Warriors pitching sensation Jennifer Woodard was outdueled by the Vikings' Amanda Grant, with both pitchers going the distance. Woodard surrendered six hits to Grant's five.

The Vikings scored an unearned in the second and later added two runs on a bloop single.

"Jennifer pitched well, but we gave her no support," Sea Warriors coach Howard Okita said. "We cannot take anything away from the opposing pitcher, however. She kept us off-balance with her off-speed stuff."

In the second game, the Sea Warriors committed two more errors but escaped with the win, helped by an outstanding pitching by senior captain Susie Schoales. Schoales pitched a complete-game two-hitter for the shutout. She had two strikeouts while walking none.

"Susie pitched really well," Okita said. "She's deceptive, especially with her inside-curve that dives in on batters' hands."

"We have to be more aggressive with our bats if we want to win," he added. "It's easy to say, but we have to chase better pitches, chase the strikes."