On Saturday the Chaminade women’s softball team played their last final two games at Howard Okita Field in Kaneohe. Ending the season with an overall record of 10-38 and a Pacific West Conference record of 9-23.
The doubleheader also served as a send off for a strong senior class. For seven of the Swords, Saturday marked the culmination of years of hard work, and it was represented well.
Having an improved overall and conference record from last season, the Swords ended the season with a five game improvement from the last season.
The Silverswords played against a tough Hawaii Pacific University team in the doubleheader and came up short both games, although both were hard fought.
The Swords started the first game of the doubleheader strong with senior Ashley Phelps, who lead the team with a single. Elia Lizarraga capitalized with a sacrifice bunt that moved Phelps to third and HPU catcher committed a throwing error, making Lizarraga safe at first base. Shannan Hokama then singled to score Phelps while Lizarraga moved into scoring position at third base. Then a wild pitch scored Lizarraga and secured a 2-0 lead.
In the top of the fifth inning, senior Kristiann Endow hit a homerun, which was the first time a Silversword has hit one since 2011 at Okita Field.
The second of the two games was also a hard fought battle with the Swords unable to convert more than two runs from eight hits.
The game started off with a Swords error that was a catalyst for four straight runs off of starting pitcher Kaitlyn Watanabe. The game was fairly quiet on both sides until the top of the fourth inning where the Swords were able to get on the board when Aja Keyes rallied a two-out double on the left field line and scored on a single by Amber Manuel.
The Sharks remained quiet under the outstanding efforts of relief pitcher Brett Aspel, but were able to finally connect with the bat in the bottom of the sixth inning, extending the lead to 6-1.
The final inning of the game concluded with a homer from Kristen Caskey, and a two out rally that had runners in scoring position, but were unable to close the deficit. The HPU Sharks were able to carry a hot first inning through the rest of the game to secure the win, and give the Swords their second loss of the day.
Phelps ended her collegiate career at the highest batting average on the team with a .348 and was also the only PacWest conference player to end the season with a perfect fielding percentage.
Despite two losses to end the season, this years team has made tremendous efforts towards improvement, hitting 16 homers as a team this season, the most since 2013. As for the Seniors, they gave it all they had and were to end their careers in good fashion by each finishing out the season with one last hit.