Not-so-super Senior Day

The Chaminade Silversword’s women softball team hosted its Senior Day on Sunday, April 24, for a doubleheader against Hawaiʻi Pacific University, Chaminade’s No. 1 crosstown rival.

It was a rough sendoff for the five seniors as the Silverswords fell short 10-2 in the first game and 14-2 in the second.

“Tonight’s game didn’t go as planned, but sometimes, especially with the game of softball, a team’s energy really can cause the loss of a game,” said senior outfielder Keani Passi. “We played dead and couldn’t shake off mistakes, which HPU took advantage of.”

The Sharks improved to 7th in the conference with a 12-16 record (and a 16-30 overall mark).

Chaminade is now 11-33 overall and 6-22 in the PacWest Conference, putting the Swords 10th out of the 12 teams in the league. They have lost nine of their last 11 games and will finish the season with a doubleheader Friday against UH-Hilo on the Big Island.

“I told the team prior to the start of the game that at this time of the season, the way our record is right now and what not, we’re playing for pride, we’re playing for the school, we’re playing because we love the game,” said head coach Kent Yamaguchi. “But if we needed any added incentive it’s Senior Day. I wanted to top off and end on a good note for the seniors.”

The first game for the Silverswords ended in six innings. Errors from the ‘Swords helped the Sharks score 5 runs during both the third and sixth innings. In the sixth inning the score was 10-0. The bottom of the sixth was when Chaminade was able to score 2 runs.

In game 2, the Sharks carried on the positive momentum from Game 1 and put the game away with 12 runs off nine hits in the first inning. The lineup batted around twice, sending 18 batters to the plate. Three Chaminade pitchers made appearances in the inning, with starter Luana Moreno giving up 7 runs before getting pulled for Kayla Higuchi. Senior Amber Manuel finished the inning by getting HPU to foul out.

However, after the Senior Day festivities, the players focused more on their careers as a whole than the two losses.

“I had a great experience playing for Chaminade, they gave me an opportunity to play when it was looking like I wouldn’t play again,” said Manuel, who transferred to CUH in 2014. “The team was so accepting of me and my teammates have become some of my best friends. I learned to keep on trying and to stay hopeful when adversity happens. Although the season didn’t go as planned, we had a lot of positives come out of it. The team was super close this year, and we had a great time being with each other.”

Manuel went 3-for-3 during the first game and pitched 4 1/3 innings of relief in the second game.

“This season was an impactful one, team wise,” said senior Sierra Mendiola. “Regardless (of) our record, we learned a lot about each other and grew as a team. We managed to find ways to stick together when things weren’t working and motivate each other when we needed a push.”

The teams were supposed to play a doubleheader in Kaneohe on Saturday but it was canceled due to rain.  The game will not be rescheduled.