Hawaii's season of outrageous offense turned surreal yesterday.

The 21st-ranked Rainbow Wahine broke the NCAA record for home runs in a season during a 14-run third inning in their 16-1 win over rival Fresno State and moved within a win of the program's first Western Athletic Conference softball tournament title.

Hawaii sent 20 batters to the plate in the third and scored seven runs before the first out was recorded in Las Cruces, N.M. By the time Fresno State finally got out of the interminable half inning, the Wahine produced 13 hits in a series of line drives and bloopers and two blasts.

“;In the dugout, it was just really loud,”; UH shortstop Jessica Iwata said. “;Everyone was upbeat and excited. Some of us came around (to hit) three times, it was crazy.”;

Hawaii tied the previous single-season home run record of 134, set by Arizona last year, in Thursday's 16-8 win over San Jose State. Iwata gave Hawaii sole possession of the mark with No. 135, a three-run homer to left field in the third. Fellow freshman Kelly Majam added a grand slam later in the inning.

“;It felt great. We were looking forward to breaking that record for a while,”; Iwata said.

The Wahine (43-12) moved into the championship round and will meet Fresno State again today at New Mexico State Softball Complex. The game will be televised on KFVE and is set for 10 a.m. Hawaii time.

Fresno State (38-18) survived an elimination game against Boise State 6-5 and will have to beat UH twice today to retain the tournament title and earn the WAC's automatic bid to the NCAA regionals.

“;I don't see, not with an automatic bid at stake, there's anyone giving up,”; Hawaii head coach Bob Coolen said before UH's opponent had been determined.

Yesterday's winners bracket game was scoreless through two innings before UH broke loose.

Katie Grimes opened the third with a single to left and Traci Yoshikawa doubled into the right-center gap to score pinch runner Brynne Buchanan with the game's first run. Majam singled to center and Iwata turned on an inside fastball from Fresno State starter Morgan Melloh. Her 17th homer of the season just cleared the left-field fence to give UH a 4-0 lead and the NCAA record.

“;Everyone was just so excited, it gave us that push to keep scoring,”; Iwata said.

“;We were ahead 6-0 when we played them at home and lost (9-7),”; she said referring to UH's lone loss of the WAC season. “;We knew they were capable of coming back and we were not going to let that happen again.”;

After Melissa Gonzalez reached on an error and Jenna Rodriguez doubled, Alexandra Aguirre's looper to left scored Gonzalez. Kanani Pu'u-Warren was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Amanda Taualii singled to left to score Rodriguez. Grimes drew a bases-loaded walk to push the lead to 7-0.

With one out, Majam cleared the bases with her 27th home run of the season and second of the tournament.

Aguirre later delivered her second RBI single of the inning and Pu'u-Warren added another run on an infield single. In her third appearance of the inning, Grimes singled to left to bring in the 14th run of the frame.

UH ace Stephanie Ricketts (24-6) limited the Bulldogs to three hits in a complete-game win as the game was called after five innings due to the mercy rule.