Wahine walk off to World Series

The team that lives by the home run is still alive, thanks to the most dramatic one of them all.

Jenna Rodriguez hit a walk-off, two-run blast that just stayed inside the left-field foul pole with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to punch Hawaii's ticket to the Women's College World Series.

One out from elimination at the Tuscaloosa Super Regional, 16th-seeded Hawaii defeated top-seeded Alabama 5-4 to take the best-of-three series. Hawaii will play Missouri in a first-round game Thursday at 7 a.m. Hawaii time in Oklahoma City.

The Rainbow Wahine (49-14) advanced by extending their national-record home run total by two, running it to 154. Every run UH scored yesterday came by home run, and all five runs came off the bat of Rodriguez.

The junior from Arcadia, Calif., came to the islands via Yavapai College, a two-year school in Arizona where she won a national junior college championship last season. She brought with her a mentality that came in handy when she stepped into the batter's box with the Hawaii season on the line.

The Rainbow Wahine trailed 4-3 and had struck out 16 times by the time Rodriguez came up as the last hope. With leadoff batter Kelly Majam on first after drawing a walk, Rodriguez blasted the game-winner off the first pitch from Alabama ace Kelsi Dunne.

"Going through my head, my dad has always told me you want to be that person up with two outs, and thrive on it," Rodriguez said. "I came up there knowing I was going to hit because I had been hitting her all day, and I came out on top."

Rodriguez went 3-for-4, starting with a three-run shot in the first inning that gave Hawaii early control.

Both teams held their breath while Rodriguez's game-winner sailed down the line, waiting to see if it would drift foul or stay fair.

"I knew it had a chance of going foul," she said. "I stood there and watched it, because I had to know if it was going foul or fair."

It stayed inside the foul pole, and a small, but loud, group of Hawaii supporters in the stands began their celebration.

***

The University of Hawai‘i softball team’s post-season run to the 2010 Women’s College World Series catapulted the ‘Bows to No. 7 in both the USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association and the ESPN.com/USA Softball final polls. It is the highest finish for the Rainbow Wahine in school history.

Hawai‘i posted a 50-16 overall record—hitting the 50-win mark for just the third time—en route to its first ever appearance in the WCWS. The ‘Bows won both the Western Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles before sweeping through the Stanford Regional, where they defeated UC Davis, No. 15/17 Stanford and Texas Tech. Hawai‘i, the 16th seed in the NCAA tournament, then won the Tuscaloosa Super Regional, defeating the No. 1 seed Alabama. The ‘Bows lost the first game, 8-0 in five innings, but bounced back and held on to an 8-7 win in the second game of the double header that snapped the Crimson Tide’s 28-game win streak. Hawa‘i then punched their ticket to the WCWS on Jenna Rodriguez’s dramatic two-run, two-out, walk off home run to defeat Alabama, 5-4.

The Rainbow Wahine entered the postseason ranked 19th in the ESPN.com poll and 23rd in the NFCA poll. In the WCWS, UH defeated Missouri before losing to Arizona and eventual champion, UCLA, to close their season.

Hawai‘i shattered the previous NCAA single season home record of 134 set last season by Arizona with 158 homers this season. Eight Rainbow Wahine had at least 11 home runs, lead by All-American Kelly Majam’s NCAA-best, 30. Thirteen different UH players hit at least one round-tripper this season. The ‘Bows also set new single-season records in most runs scored (488), most RBI (449), most doubles (92), most walks (185), and most hits (578).

***

BRISTOL, Conn.—University of Hawai`i centerfielder, Kelly Majam, was named an ESPN.com All-American on Monday. Majam is the first Rainbow Wahine to ever be selected for the honor by ESPN.com.

Majam, one of UH’s freshman phenoms, finished as the NCAA DI home run queen with 30—a new UH and WAC record. Majam is the first Hawai`i player to ever lead the nation in home runs. She also set new school marks with 81 runs scored and 44 walks. Majam led the 'Bows this season with a .400 average (84-for-210) while hitting 15 doubles, two triples, and driving in 60 runs. On defense, she had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage with 79 put-outs and six assists in centerfield.

On top of leading the nation in home runs, Majam ended the 2010 season ranked fourth in the NCAA DI with 1.23 runs scored per game; fifth with a .919 slugging percentage; 27th with a .519 on-base percentage; and 42nd in batting average at .400.