It may have come in a loss, but Ulu Matagiese showed what is hopefully and likely a sign of things to come with her first career home run for the University of Hawaii, Friday at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
It may have come in a loss, but Ulu Matagiese showed what is hopefully and likely a sign of things to come with her first career home run for the University of Hawaii, Friday at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
Saturday was the final day of the Pepsi Rainbow Wahine Classic and UH reached the semifinals to take on the Oregon Ducks, who had not yet lost a game (4-0) during the round-robin phase of the tournament. James Madison and BYU entered the other semifinal game with the two winners going against each other for the championship (results unavailable).
But Friday started off with a bang for UH when Matagiese got the Wahine rolling early against Oregon, which is ranked second nationally in the NCAA Coaches Poll. The teams were scoreless heading to the bottom of the second inning when Matagiese stepped to the dish with a pair of runners on base. The 2013 Waimea High School grad then took a 1-2 offering from Karissa Hovinga deep to center field and cleared the fence for the first homer of her young collegiate tenure.
The smash plated Kayla Wartner and Kalie Nakao to give UH a 3-0 lead over the favorites. Oregon would battle back and the two teams were tied at 4-4 after four innings, but the Ducks blew things open in the top of the sixth, scoring seven runs for a 12-4 lead that would hold up under the mercy rule.
Matagiese has come on of late for Hawaii, which came into Saturday’s action 13-13 on the season. She has started 13 games and appeared in 19, now fourth on the team in batting average at a .314 clip (11 for 35). She does have one double in addition to her homer and has driven in eight runs.
Matagiese had reached base safely in nine of her past 11 games entering Saturday, hitting .348 (8 for 23) over that span. She appears to be gaining confidence and should be a consistent cog in the lineup for Bob Coolen’s young squad, which consists of eight freshmen and seven sophomores.
It’s been an uncharacteristically slow start for the Rainbow Wahine, who don’t possess the experience or familiarity of the previous group of UH softball stars. Hawaii averaged 44 wins over the past four seasons and lost just 13 games all of last year (45-13). With a record hovering around the .500 mark, it’s difficult to envision the Wahine reaching those gaudy numbers that fans have become accustomed to, but it’s clearly a rebuilding and retooling year.
What’s not difficult to envision is Matagiese becoming one of the team’s biggest and most productive stars as her career progresses. Friday’s blast was just a small sample of that potential.
