Waipahu, HI The Chaminade Softball team kicked off its 2008 season this afternoon against UH Hilo; they played a double header today at CORPS field. They lost their first game 7 to 0; however they came up huge in the 6th inning in game number two and beat UH Hilo with a score of 7 to 2.

For the first game Chaminade was led by senior captain, Anina Quaranto. She had 2 of the 3 hits posted by the Silverswords. The game remained close through five innings, Chaminade trailed by only run. However, the Vulcans exploded with 6 runs in the top half of the 6th, CUH could never recover and lost 7 to 0. Senior captain Carolyn Fisher was charged with the loss and UH Hilo's Sarah Weisskopf earned the win for the Vulcans. Tessa Troung of UH Hilo went one for four on the day, however, her one hit brought in 2 of her teammates, she had the most runs batted in for the Vulcans

Chaminade senior captain, Iwalani Yamaguchi said about her opponent, "Going into the game we knew that the Hilo was the best of best, knowing that we were the underdog, we told ourselves to enter both games with the mind set of having nothing to lose." All things being considered CUH played a good first game, with the exception of the 6th inning, that being said, game two was a different story. The Silverswords blew away the Vulcans 7 to 2. This time it was Chaminade who came up huge in the 6th inning, they added four more runs to the three they already had putting the game out of reach for UH Hilo. Senior captain, Iwalani Yamaguchi came up big in the 6th inning with a clutch double. It was your typical fairy tale, bases loaded, leading by only a couple of runs and in need of something big to happen. What came next was something you would only read in a fairy tale, senior captain, Iwalani Yamaguchi, worked the count a bit, she waited for her pitch. When she got the pitch she wanted, she swung and crushed the ball scoring all three of her teammates. She was held up at second with a double, herdouble for the most part sealed the deal of CUH. However, it all came down to one inning. Would the 5 runs be enough to hold off UH Hilo? Could freshman pitcher, Kasy'e Lalau, playing her first ever collegiate game give her teammates the three outs they needed? All these questions and more were answered in the seventh inning. Kasy'e Lalau ended up pitching a great inning and with it helped her teammates get the W. Although, she didn't get credit for win, she still pitched an unbelievable 3 innings of softball.

The win was credited to freshman Ashley Hopfe, who pitched a solid 4 innings, giving up only 1 earned run. She had one strike out and two walks on the twelve batters she faced. UH Hilo's Amanda May was charged with the loss.

Senior captain, Carolyn Fisher said about both games, "Everything went perfect tonight! We played well as a team and all of our hard work paid off. Even though we lost the first game, we never gave up and pulled through with the win."

With the spilt decision's today Chaminade record stands at 1-1 and UH Hilo also has the same record of 1 and 1. CUH plays again tomorrow at CORPS field in another double header; first pitch for the first game is set to begin at 2:00PM.