UH-Hilo ran into one of the best pitching giants on the Division II level disguised as someone who looks like any other softball player.
Concordia Irvine freshman right-hander Callie Nunes stands 5 feet 5 and has a slender frame. She doesn’t look intimidating until she starts whipping blazing riseballs at eye level and commands the pitching circle with her competitive nature.
The Vulcans saw video on her and knew what to expect, but Nunes beat them anyway, 2-1, on Saturday at their campus field, handing Cyanne Fernandez her first loss and showing the difference between talented spin power and soft-tossing finesse pitching.
In Game 2, No. 19 Concordia defeated UHH 7-6 in eight innings, scoring four runs in the seventh and one in the eighth.
Grayson Harvey went four innings and allowed six runs, Jordan Quinn followed with 3 1/3 scoreless innings for the win, and Nunes struck out two for the save.
Leah Gonzales got tagged for five runs in six frames, and Fernandez (11-2) pitched two innings and gave up two runs in the loss.
In Game 2, Brinelle Kaleikini batted 2 for 4, Bailey Gaspar had two RBIs and Isabelle Mejia hit a solo homer for the Vulcans (13-6, 4-2 PacWest).
Ryann Ferguson batted 2 for 5 with two RBIs, and Amanda Gjertsen was 2 for 4 with two RBIs for the Eagles (14-5, 7-3).
Last season, Harvey, who fits the ace’s mold at 5 feet 8, was the PacWest pitcher of the year with a 21-6 record and 1.33 ERA. She struck out 199 in 168 innings. Despite those glamorous stats, Harvey is the No. 2 pitcher.
Nunes is from Modesto, Calif., and was a two-time California Interscholastic Federation pitcher of the year. She was a blue-chip recruit, scouted by Division I colleges but found a comfortable fit with the Eagles, who built an early relationship with her.
What separates Nunes from others is her ability to spin the ball. Eagles coach Crystal Rosenthal said it’s a natural talent because of Nunes’ arm, large hands and long fingers. Spin creates ball movement, and arm speed produces velocity.
Nunes has a monopoly on both.
“What she has is natural God-given spin,” Rosenthal said. “She has all the pitches: curveball, screwball, riser, changeup. Everything she throws goes up, and it’s all different pitches. We don’t recruit by size. She has large hands, and that’s huge for spin. You can’t prepare for it. It is what it is.”
Rosenthal sounded a little like Bill Belichick. But even Tom Brady throws interceptions. And Nunes makes mistakes, too, but basically committed just one against the free-swinging Vuls, who chased high cheese all day long.
In the fourth, Kaleikini cracked a solo homer off Nunes, who walked three, escaped trouble with seven stranded and impressed UHH coach Callen Perreira.
“She’s one of the best pitchers in the country and the PacWest. She’s the best pitcher we’ve faced,” he said. “We faced Colorado Mesa’s ace and got her for five hits and five runs. So, we’re very capable.
“But we were overmatched and swung at balls up in the zone. We failed to adjust.”
Back in February, No. 1 Colorado Mesa toppled UHH 8-3 behind McKenzie Surface’s five-hitter. The 5-11 right-hander was an All-American honorable mention last season.
The Vuls scratched Surface but couldn’t figure out Nunes, who got inning-ending strikeouts with two Vuls on in the fourth and fifth innings.
Perreira estimated that Nunes throws about 64 mph, an equivalent to 93 mph in baseball, and Fernandez ranges from 57 to 58 mph or 82 to 83 mph in baseball.
“Cyanne is a really smart pitcher. She’s not overpowering, but she has good ball movement,” Perreira said.
If she doesn’t hit her spots, that’s when Fernandez runs into trouble.
In the second, UHH played a single into a triple when Sarah Kretschma hit a liner to center that Mejia tried to catch on a slide. The ball went past her to the wall, and Kretschma later scored on a fielder’s choice.
Then Fernandez made her second pitching mistake, only one more than Nunes, in the fifth when she hung a changeup to Amy Eilefson, who waited, kept her hands back and homered for a 2-1 lead.
Mari Kawano batted 2 for 4 to lead the Vuls, who’ll face the Nunes nightmare for three more years. She didn’t go away soon enough, though.
“She’s a good pitcher and threw a lot of up balls,” said UHH second baseman Kiarra Lincoln, who went 0 for 4 and entered the game with a .345 batting average.
“She has a lot of confidence in herself. Since I’m small (5 feet), I didn’t underestimate her. We saw video of her. We knew she was good.”
Her only loss was 1-0 to Dixie State. In that game, Nunes threw a five-hitter and whiffed 11. That’s about par for her.
In Game 2, Nunes came on in relief in the eighth. She whiffed Kawano, walked Lincoln to put two Vuls in scoring position and faced Gaspar, who hit .372 last season and was an All-PacWest second-team pick. UHH couldn’t solve the nightmare, and Gaspar struck out swinging to end the game.
Nunes is now 8-1 with a 0.40 ERA and five saves. She has struck out 114 in 70 innings, an 11.6 strikeout per inning average. Those are the type of stats that belong to giants, no matter the size.