Fresno State stops Hawaii

Getting to the ballpark in time for today's 8:30 a.m. start figured to be a difficult enough task for the Hawaii softball team. Trying to bounce back from two losses to Western Athletic Conference rival Fresno State might be even harder.

"It's going to be tough after losing a game like this," Hawaii coach Bob Coolen said after watching Fresno State pull out a 5-3 win in nine innings to complete a doubleheader sweep yesterday at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

All-American pitcher Jaime Southern fired a one-hitter and held off a Rainbow Wahine rally to lead the Bulldogs to a 3-1 victory in the opener.

Fresno State squandered a lead in the seventh inning of the second game, but Nichole Willis' two-out, two-run double in the ninth propelled the Bulldogs to the sweep.

"It was really important to make a statement throughout the conference, not just Hawaii," Southern said.

With yesterday's wins, Fresno State now leads the all-time series with UH 49-9. More significant for UH, the Wahine (20-19 overall) dropped to 1-4 in the conference.

"We only have 13 games left and we've already dug ourselves a hole," Coolen said. "Unless we start feeling good about ourselves, we're in trouble.

"It would have been nice to take one today and see what happens tomorrow."

The Wahine will have little time to recover as the teams close the three-game series with a single game today at 8:30 a.m. The early start became necessary when Friday's series opener was pushed back due to rain. The series was originally scheduled to end yesterday. The Bulldogs fly back to the mainland this afternoon.

While UH is looking up at the rest of the conference, Fresno State (23-8, 2-0) can relax a bit today, having already clinched the series win.

"Hawaii is a very good team and it's always a battle," Fresno State coach Margie Wright said. "It's tough to open up with them, but I thought we played really well today."

Southern struck out 10 in the Bulldogs' victory in the first game, which took just 78 minutes to play.

Southern (12-2) and UH starter Melissa Coogan (10-8) breezed through the first three innings before the Bulldogs took advantage of a UH miscue in the fourth to open the scoring.

With runners on first and second and two out, Kristin Sylvester grounded back to Coogan. But the throw to first was high, allowing Christina Clark to score from second.

Clark padded FSU's lead by driving Coogan's first pitch of the sixth inning off the left-field foul pole. The blast gave Clark the WAC record for career home runs with 47. She's hit six in her last six games at RWSS.

"I forgot about that," Clark said of the record. "It's nice. My focus is just getting runs for our pitchers and getting behind them to win the game."

The Bulldogs led 3-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh. Southern held UH hitless until Kaulana Gould lined a single to left field to score Noelle Izumi. The Wahine put runners on second and third with two out, but Robinson's grounder up the middle was scooped up by Clark, who threw to first to end the game.

Fresno State jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second game, but UH scratched out runs in the fourth and seventh innings to send the game into extra innings.

Hawaii tied the game in the bottom of the seventh with a little help from the Bulldogs. Izumi reached on an infield single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Denise Dahlberg then tapped a grounder in front of the plate, but Southern, playing first base, couldn't snag Willis' throw, allowing Izumi to score the tying run.

After a scoreless eighth inning, Fresno State put runners on second and third with two out in the ninth and reclaimed the lead when Willis slammed a double to the left-center-field gap.

"It seems like it's always someone different stepping up," Wright said. "Nichole struggled today, and then she came through big time."

Bulldog starter Amanda Nesbitt (5-4) went the distance to earn the win.

"She got us all off balance and we never made an adjustment," Coolen said. "We tied the game up, but we could have won it very easily."

UH freshman Kate Robinson (2-2) threw 5 1/3 innings of scoreless relief before surrendering Willis' double and took the loss.

"The brightest spot on our team is Kate Robinson right now," Coolen said. "She's coming in and doing a good job relief-wise. Unfortunately, she had the arduous task of having to give up no runs for us to win the ballgame and it just didn't happen."