Less than a week after their away game against Cal St. Northridge, the softball team once again left home to participate in the Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii. This five-round competition took place over the course of three days and featured opponents such as Charleston Southern University, University of Toledo and of course, the University of Hawaii.

The Redhawk’s first game against Hawaii ended in a 4-3 victory, starting the tournament off on a win. Seattle University was able to overcome an early 2-run lead established by the Rainbow Wahine in the first inning by making four runs of their own in the third. Hawaii came close to catching up, but Seattle U was able to keep its momentum until the end of the game.

Against Charleston Southern the next day, it was the Redhawks that began strong, with two runs at the start of the first inning against the Buccaneers. Charleston Southern matched these numbers when it was their turn at bat, closing the first inning on a 2-2 score. This tie continued up until the fourth inning, in which Charleston Southern made a run Seattle U would later match near the end of the game. The Redhawks were defeated in the last inning after having been neck-and-neck with the Buccaneers for most of the game.

Later that day, Seattle U went up against Toledo, which used its strong pitching and steady scoring over the first three innings to establish an early lead. Our team began to contest it in the sixth inning with a run, but unfortunately ended there in what would be another narrow loss for the Redhawks.

“The little things caught up to us today,” said Head Coach Geo Hirai. “We still have a great opportunity in front of us tomorrow.” On Sunday, Seattle U came back with another decisive win against the University of Hawaii, placing our team in the finals.

Hawaii scored the first run of the game, but the Redhawks responded with two run of their own in the second inning. The two teams were evenly matched until the sixth inning, where the Redhawks scored twice more and created a point gap that would prove too much to overcome. The tournament finals were a rematch against Toledo, who once again leveraged a powerful start. What began as a one-point advantage for the Rockets became six by the end of the third inning, a pace our own team could not keep up with.

“In the championship game, we were a little amped up and we’ll learn from this experience,” Coach Hirai said. After its away games, Seattle U so ball will be back home to play Penn State on Wednesday, March 8 at 4 p.m.

Carlos may be reached at
[email protected]