University of Hawaii senior first baseman Heather Morales treats Big West competition just as she does nonconference opposition: with bad intentions.
University of Hawaii senior first baseman Heather Morales treats Big West competition just as she does nonconference opposition: with bad intentions.
UH-Hilo senior third baseman Bailey Gaspar doesn’t discriminate either.
Each was honored Monday.
With multiple hits in all three games in UH’s opening conference series against UC Davis, Morales took home Big West Softball Field Player of the Week, her second such accolade this season.
The first baseman batted .545 (6-for-11) with a run scored and two hits in each game played, while recording a team-high five RBIs.
In the series-opening 9-1 victory, Morales went 2 for 3 with an opposite-field double and a run batted in.
In the second game, a 7-6 UH loss, she finished 2 for 4 with a two-run blast that landed over the netting and onto the tennis courts. It was her sixth home run and the 16th of her career. In the 6-2 victory in the series finale, Morales went 2 for 4 again, driving in a pair of runs with a single up the middle.
Morales has started all 34 games at first base. She leads UH with 26 RBIs and a .411 on-base percentage and is hitting .354 with seven doubles and six home runs.
This is the third time in four weeks a Rainbow Wahine player earned the weekly honor. Two weeks ago, sophmore third baseman Nicole Lopez won it, and Morales earned it the week before that.
The Wahine (23-11, 2-1 Big West) travel to Cal State Northridge for three-game series that starts Friday.
• This also the second honor of the season for Gaspar, who led the Vulcans to six wins in 10 games on the week, including a 3-1 mark in PacWest contests.
She hit .406 (13-32) with three doubles, two home runs, 10 RBI, seven runs and a .688 slugging percentage.
She drove in three runs and scored three runs in a doubleheader sweep of Holy Names. She went 8-for-12 with four RBI in the final three games of the Tournament of Champions.
Gaspar is hitting .354 and ranks fourth in the PacWest in on-base percentage (.504) and slugging percentage (.677). She has nine home runs on the year.
Gaspar shared the honor with Hawaii Pacific’s Dominique Walker, and the two players’ teams will face Sunday at UHH.