HONOLULU—University of Hawai’i softball head coach Bob Coolen released the full 2024 schedule which features 51 total games—24 non-conference and 27 Big West contests. Hawai’i will host three pre-season tournaments and will play a total of 17 non-conference teams (including an exhibition home game vs. Josai University from Japan). Hawai’i’s schedule is filled with regional opponents who represents 12 different conferences from all across the nation. In all, UH will host 29 home games at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium with 13 away and five neutral site games.
Hawai’i opens the season hosting the Bank of Hawaii Paradise Classic from February 8-11 with BYU, Nevada, UMKC (Kansas-City) and Ole Miss coming to Honolulu to open the 2024 season. Hawai’i will host Josai Univeristy (Japan) in an exhibition game following the opening tourney on Feb. 14.
The Rainbow Wahine will then travel to Riverside to play Cal Baptist in a single game on Feb. 20 before heading to the Big League Dreams Complex in Cathedral City, Calif. to compete in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic from Feb. 22-25. The ‘Bows will take on Rutgers and Illinois both from the Big Ten; California out of the PAC-12; former WAC rival Fresno State; and Tennessee (SEC) which finished last year in the Women’s College World Series’ semifinals. The ‘Bows competed in the prestigious tourney four-straight seasons (2008-11) when it was previously named the Cathedral City Classic.
Hawai’i will then return home to host their final two tournaments with the ‘Bows playing 11 games in 11 days over the span of the two tourneys. The Spring Fling Tournament runs from Feb. 29 – March 2 and features Tennessee State, Portland State and Loyola Marymount (LMU).
The four-team, five-day Outrigger Rainbow Wahine Classic (March 6-10) will round out Hawai’i’s pre-season schedule. Cleveland State, New Mexico and UConn will wrap up their non-conference schedules in Honolulu.
This year, Hawai’i will be on the road for five Big West series, beginning the conference season at UC Santa Barbara (March 15-16). Other BW road series are at UC San Diego (March 29-30), at UC Riverside (April 12-13), and at Long Beach State (April 26-27). UH will finish the regular season on the continent at UC Davis (May 10-11). The Rainbow Wahine host four home conference series, starting with CSUN (March 22-23), Cal Poly (April 5-6), Cal State Bakersfield (April 19-20), and Cal State Fullerton (May 3-4).
The 2024 Rainbow Wahine return 21 letterwinners which include seven starting position players and four pitchers from last year’s squad which finished with a 30-23 overall record.
Hawai’i’s offense returns its top-six hitters from last season. NFCA All-Region second baseman Maya Nakamura returns for her senior campaign after leading UH with a .390 batting average, 35 runs scored, 29 walks and a .531 on-base %. Junior catcher Izabella Martinez joined Nakamura on the All-Big West First team after a breakout season in which she led the Big West as the toughest batter to strikeout, getting fanned just four times in 143 at-bats. Martinez led UH with 49 hits while tallying eight doubles nine home runs and 39 RBI. Both Haley Johnson and Malia Xiao Gin earned All-Big West honorable mention honors last year. Johnson, a senior designated player was clutch in the middle of the lineup, racking up a team-best 11 doubles and 43 RBI with a .305 average. Gin started 52 games at shortstop and hit .277 primarily as the lead-off hitter finishing second ont he team with 33 runs scored an 27 walks. Starting pitcher Key-Annah Campbell-Pua was voted to the 2023 BW All-Freshman Team after recording an 11-8 overall record with a 3.06 ERA in 21 appearances.
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