In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, University of Hawai’i Athletics pays tribute to memorable Rainbow Wahine student-athletes and teams. This is the final installment of the series written by Lance Tominaga. The stories will run throughout the 2022-23 athletic season and can be found on the page #Wahine50: Celebrating 50 Years of Rainbow Wahine Athletics. Enacted in June of 1972, Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or educational program that receives federal funding. Now known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, the law paved the way for girls and women to achieve their dreams both in the classroom and on the playing field. Here is one inspiring example of its far-reaching legacy.
It might not have been the shot heard around the world, but it was undoubtedly heard—and seen—around the softball world from Tuscaloosa to Mānoa.
Jenna Rodriguez’s dramatic walk-off homer in the 2010 Super Regional not only propelled the University of Hawai’i softball team to their first-ever NCAA Women’s College World Series, it also provided one of the greatest moments in the history of UH athletics.
Four members of that 2010 team recently shared their memories of that historic upset over top-seeded Alabama: Katie (Grimes) Profitt, then a senior catcher; Jenna (Rodriguez) DiPrima, a junior utility player; Kelly (Majam) Elms, a redshirt freshman center fielder; and Jessica Iwata, a freshman shortstop.
THE ROAD TO TUSCALOOSA
After going 41-12 in the regular season (19-1 in the Western Athletic Conference), the Rainbow Wahine headed to Fresno, Calif. as the top seed in the 2010 WAC Tournament. Hawai’i run-ruled Fresno State, 14-3, in the championship game to capture its first WAC tourney title. In the tourney, the team blasted 13 home runs in four tournament games en route to setting a new NCAA record for home runs in a season (136). In the post-season, UH extended its NCAA home run record to a total of 158 which was recently broken by Oklahoma in 2021.
Head Coach Bob Coolen and his team then made the 170-mile trip to Stanford for the NCAA Regionals as the 16th-seed. There, the Rainbow Wahine throttled UC Davis, Stanford and Texas Tech on consecutive days—outscoring their opponents a combined 23-to-6 to advance to the program’s second Super Regional in four years.
Next stop – Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for a best-of-three Super Regional series against the top-seeded Crimson Tide. Alabama entered the series with a 51-9 record, riding a 27-game winning streak.
JENNA (RODRIGUEZ) DIPRIMA: We knew [Alabama] was the top team in the nation, but we were doing great and getting better with every game we played. Our confidence grew with every win, especially heading into the postseason We knew we could beat [Alabama], but we also knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We had to work hard for everything to fall into place.
KELLY (MAJAM) ELMS: I think we were really excited about going to a new place. None of us had ever been to Tuscaloosa before. Playing wise, it was the biggest series we ever played in. It was also going to be the biggest stadium I ever played in. It was going to be on ESPN. Back then, not every game was televised. We were excited for the opportunity and to be a part of that atmosphere.
JESSICA IWATA: We felt a little bit of everything. We certainly were happy to be there. But we also knew this was the biggest stage we might ever play on. We weren’t intimidated. We were on a hot streak of our own, and we felt we just had to stick to what we knew and keep playing the way we had been playing all season. That helped us stay grounded. We didn’t want to change anything once we got there.
GAME 1: RUDE AWAKENING
Final Score: Alabama 8, Hawai’i 0 (5)
The first game of the series was scheduled for May 28, but a passing thunderstorm caused a rainout, meaning the two teams would play a doubleheader the next day. Unfortunately for the Rainbow Wahine, as the storm went silent, so did their bats.
UA All-American Kelsi Dunne, the reigning SEC Pitcher of the Year, surrendered only two hits in Game 1, shutting out Hawai’i, 8-0, in front of a sellout crowd of 3,218 at the University of Alabama Softball Complex (now the John and Ann Rhoads Softball Stadium). The game ended in five innings because of the eight-run mercy rule. It was only the second time that UH had been mercy-ruled all season.
KATIE (GRIMES) PROFITT: That game lasted only about 50 minutes! So it was a “quick death,” which was good. In softball, you have to be able to bounce back quickly. You have to be able to know that it’s a new game, and that game doesn’t know what you did in the last game.
ELMS: I felt a bit intimidated. Like I said, it was the biggest audience we had ever played in front of, and I don’t think it registered in our heads that the atmosphere was going to be that hostile toward us. Once the game got underway and people were screaming at us, we realized it was going to be a real challenge. Plus, give credit to Alabama. They had big hitters, and their pitcher [Dunne] was really good.
DIPRIMA: After the loss, we had to reflect on what we could improve on and also build on the good things that we did. We also had to quickly forget about the loss. It’s a brand new game and you start with a clean slate.
IWATA: Now we were in a do-or-die situation. The odds were against us, but we hadn’t lost our confidence. We knew what it took to win. We knew we had a chance even if a lot of other people didn’t think we did.
ELMS: Looking back, [the rainout] ended up being a good thing for us. It meant that Alabama had to go with a new pitcher.
Hawai’i made its first Super Regional appearance in 2007, when Kanani (Pu’u-Warren) Williams, Amanda “AJ” (Tauali’i) Romero, Traci Yoshikawa and Profitt were all freshmen. Although UH fell in three games top-ranked Tennessee (led by ace Monica Abbott), the team fought back to force a third and deciding game after falling by mercy rule in the first. Those four returned as seniors to lead the Rainbow Wahine in 2010.)
GAME 2: TRUE GRIT
Final score: Hawai’i 8, Alabama 7
With just a 30-minute break between games, the Rainbow Wahine had little time to dwell on their Game 1 loss. Alabama, still had momentum on their side.
Crimson Tide pitcher/first baseman Charlotte Morgan, a two-time SEC Player of the year, brought home teammate Kayla Braud on a sacrifice fly in the top of the first inning. Alabama quickly led, 1-0.
This time, however, Hawai’i responded with some offense firepower of their own.
Elms led off the bottom half off the frame with a solo shot off Morgan to tie the game. It was the freshman’s NCAA-leading 30th homer of the season which still ranks Elms at No. 9 in NCAA home run history.
ELMS: It was a change-up, and [Morgan] threw it a little too high so it was easier to recognize. Thankfully I was able to get all of it, and I got it over the right field wall. I think that was what our team needed. That was our M.O. all year: home runs. Getting that first one out of the way for our team, I think, was a huge help. It helped our confidence and settled us down. It was, like, “Okay, we can continue doing what we’ve done all season, even in this difficult environment.”
Hawai’i struck again in the second inning. With outfielders Alex (Aguirre) Gomez and (Pu’u-Warren) Wilson at first and second, a grounder by first baseman (Tauali’i) Romero advanced both runners into scoring position. Then Profitt tagged Morgan with a single to left field to bring in Aguirre. Senior second baseman Yoshikawa then grounded out. With Pu’u-Warren holding at third and pinch runner Brynne Buchanan at second, the Crimson Tide elected to walk Elms to load the bases.
Then Jessica Iwata stepped up to the plate.
IWATA: They didn’t want to pitch to Kelly, so they walked her to get to me. Any player in that situation can tell you…that’s not a good feeling. Honestly, for most of the series I struggled a whole lot in the hitting department. So before I got to the plate, Coach Bob called a time out. He reminded me to be confident in myself and to have faith in what I could do. That time out turned out to be perfect.
Iwata’s grand slam put the Rainbow Wahine up, 6-1. The freshman phenom, just one year removed from her senior year and an HHSAA state title at Kauai High School, would deliver again later in the game.
Hawai’i added another run in the fourth off relief pitcher Lauren Sewall, when Yoshikawa launched a solo homer over the centerfield fence to give UH a 7-1 lead. However, the Crimson Tide roared back scoring six runs in the fifth to tie the game at 7-7 thus ending UH pitcher Kaia Parnaby’s outing after allowing just three hits in the first four frames.
Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy brought in Dunne to the circle in the bottom of the fifth to close the game. She stymied the Hawai’i batters. In the sixth, Yoshikawa got on base after being beaned, and Elms followed up with double to the left-center gap. With both runners in scoring position, Iwata belted a deep sacrifice fly to centerfield to drive Yoshikawa home for what proved to be the winning run.
WAC Pitcher of the Year Stephanie Ricketts, who took the loss in the first game, came in relief of Parnaby for the final 2.1 innings and held off the Crimson Tide to earn the win.
IWATA: Looking back, considering the stage we were on and how big the stakes were, I think that was one of the best games of my career.
PROFITT: We knew we needed to be resilient, and that’s something we were able to be all season long. We found a way to scratch out a win and give us another day to survive.
GAME 3: HISTORY MADE
Final score: Hawai’i 5, Alabama 4
Sunday, May 30, 2010. Rainbow Wahine fans at home woke up early – 7:00 a.m. – to watch the winner-take-all Game 3 of the series on ESPN. After winning the coin flip prior to the start of the Super Regional, Hawai’i was designated as the home team.
The game would be a slugfest, with both teams trading haymakers. DiPrima’s three-run blast off of Dunne in the bottom of the first inning gave Hawai’i the early lead.
DIPRIMA: That first home run, I think, helped set the tone. After that, we tried to feed off the success of that at-bat.
Alabama’s Morgan cut into Hawai’i’s lead with a solo shot off of Parnaby in the top of the fourth. Then, in the sixth, Crimson Tide shortstop Whitney Larson cranked a three-run homer as Alabama leap-frogged ahead, 4-3.
After giving up the home run in the first, Kelsi Dunne pitched five straight scoreless innings. Most of the sold-out crowd in attendance were anticipating a victory for the No. 1 seed.
The game came down to the bottom of the seventh, with Hawaii still trailing, 4-3.
Elms drew a leadoff walk to start the frame.
ELMS: Going into the huddle, you could tell everyone was confident, especially with the top of our order coming up. I went into that at-bat not thinking that I had to hit a home run. I just needed to get on base. At that point, it was my sixth or seventh time going up against Dunne, so I was feeling more confident in what she was going to throw at me. She threw a lot of rise balls – hard and in toward my hands. I kind of knew what to expect. I had a lot of walks that year, and that one ended up being the biggest.
Iwata, the hero of Game 2, was the next batter. She struck out swinging.
IWATA: I felt a lot of pressure, especially being a freshman. You want to do well so badly, you know? You want to be able to help your team. I was definitely disappointed.
Junior third baseman Melissa Gonzalez, who was second on the team in home runs, was caught looking and became Dunne’s sixteenth strikeout victim.
Alabama was one out away from advancing to their seventh WCWS.
DiPrima stepped up to bat.
DIPRIMA: Ever since I was a kid, at the end of batting practice, I would always imagine myself in pressure situations. I set the scene in my head: “Two outs. Trailing by one. A runner on second or third.” So going into that situation, I felt confident because I had always practiced this kind of scenario. Also, with the success I had off of [Dunne] earlier in the day, I knew I could do it. I wasn’t trying to hit a home run. I just wanted to get a base hit and keep the game going. When you try to hit a home run, that’s when it never comes. For me it was, “See ball, hit ball.”
DiPrima swung at Dunne’s first pitch, driving the ball deep to leftfield. The ball dropped over the fence and just inside the foul pole for the game-winning, walk-off home run. The capacity crowd was at a full roar as Dunne fired the fateful pitch, but the crowd grew silent watching the ball sail over the fence in a hushed disbelief…while the small pocket of Hawai’i fans sitting behind the UH dugout went crazy as the players rushed home plate to greet Elms and DiPrima with unabashed pure joy.
DIPRIMA: Right off the bat, I knew it was going to be out [over the fence]. But I saw the spin 0n the ball, and it was channeling left. That’s the reason I stopped running at first. I was yelling it to go foul after it cleared the fence.
PROFITT: We all saw the ball off the bat, and we knew that it had a chance. We just weren’t sure if it was going to stay fair or go foul. You could see Jenna standing there next to home plate, saying to not go foul. Then the left fielder just stopped, turned around and started walking. It was at that point that we were all, like, “Oh my gosh, we did it!” It was one of the craziest moments of my life!
IWATA: Oh, my goodness! To be totally honest with you, I think I was so upset about my at-bat that I didn’t see the whole thing. I just saw everybody jump and scream and run out of the dugout. I was still in my little mood until I figured out what had happened. It happened so fast. It was like literally going from zero to a hundred. It was an unbelievable feeling.
ELMS: I got to run around the bases with Jenna! Even now, talking about it, I can picture it. I wasn’t really running; it was more galloping. I was jumping and running, jumping and running all the way around the bases. I didn’t realize it was so close to being a foul ball. From my vantage point, it was a home run from the get-go. I had dreamed about going to the World Series, and to suddenly realize this was real, it was so exciting.
DIPRIMA: The feeling was indescribable. I was just screaming and filled with so much joy. I ran as fast as I could to reach my team and celebrate with everyone!
The Rainbow Wahine had punched their first ever ticket to the WCWS. After the game, an emotional Bob Coolen said, “It’s been the most exciting day, other than the birth of my two children, in my life. You aspire as a coach to make it to the World Series. This team really showed resilience and fortitude out there, never giving up.”
A LASTING IMPRESSION
The Rainbow Wahine opened the WCWS in Oklahoma City with a come-from-behind, 3-2 win over Missouri as Yoshikawa launched a two-run bomb in the top of the seventh for the win. However, the team’s historic season came to an end two days later after losses to eventual champion, UCLA and Arizona. UH’s game vs. the Wildcats drew a then-NCAA WCWS single-session record crowd of 9,080.
By that time, the team had been on the road for nearly a month (28 days).
Thirteen years later, team members still treasure the memories of their remarkable postseason run.
PROFITT: As a little girl growing up, we would watch the World Series religiously every year. So to be able to make it to that round and play in Oklahoma City, it was a dream come true for me. And to be able to represent our school and the state of Hawai’i, that was an amazing feeling. It felt like everyone was behind us. I was so grateful to be able to end my collegiate career that way.
ELMS: I always loved being an underdog. Growing up, I always felt that I related more to being an underdog. In that [Super Regional], I liked feeling that we were out to prove something. And that has been proven true in a lot of aspects in my life. I love seeing somebody that wasn’t supposed to be there doing amazing things. Also, I know that sounds like such a cliché, but it was amazing to have our dreams come true. We worked so hard to make it happen, and that it became reality was just really cool.
IWATA: I learned that if you work hard and believe in yourself, you can achieve anything you put your mind to. That’s something I take great pride in. What we accomplished, it’s bigger than ourselves. That year was so special, and no one will ever be able to take that away from us. Playing sports has really molded me into the person that I am today.
DIPRIMA: You know, we learned so much during that postseason run. Sports teaches you so much in general. Just being on that team was something I’ll always cherish. It was a total team effort. Knowing that if you didn’t have it that day, someone else would have your back. Not only do you believe in yourself, but you believe in your teammates as well. I also learned that rankings don’t really mean anything. On any given day, anyone can win.
Kelly Elms is now a work-from-home mom living in Ewa Beach. She also does commentary work for OC16’s high school softball games. She is married to Josh Elms, who was a member of the Rainbow Warrior baseball team and is now UH’s Assistant Director of Strength & Conditioning. The couple are expecting their fifth child in September.
Katie Profitt just completed her seventh season as the head softball coach at Eckerd College, a D2 school in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Kelsi Dunne, interestingly, is the head coach at a rival school, Embry-Riddle. Both teams compete in the Sunshine State Conference.) She and her husband, Tyler, have a two-and-a-half-year-old son.
Jessica Iwata is still a part of the Rainbow Wahine softball program, serving as a statistician at the games. The Mililani resident also does Human Resources work. She and husband Rocky Aviguetero has a three-year-old daughter. (“She’s swinging the bat already!”)
Jenna DiPrima now lives in Thousand Oaks, California with her husband and 14-month-old son. She is employed at Constellation Brands as a brand manager.
#HawaiiSB
Leave A Comment