The Gators softball team’s four-game winning streak came to a slippery halt on Monday at home against the Vulcans of the University of Hawaii-Hilo.

The team didn’t lose, but it wasn’t given a chance to win its fifth game in a row as Mother Nature intervened in the top of the first inning during game one of a doubleheader and heavy rain soaked the field. After a delay of 20 minutes, the umpires canceled both games due to rain.

“It would have been nice to get it in, but we can’t change the weather,” Gator coach Kristi Lansford said. Her team was enjoying a four-game winning streak including two wins over Western Washington University on Sunday and another two against Cal State Monterey Bay on Friday, lifting the team’s record over .500 overall.

There will not be a make-up game, but the Gators will see the Vulcans in the Mizuno Tournament of Champions this weekend in Turlock. The Gators won the last match up 8-3 at the tournament last March. The tournament is going to be a good opportunity for the Gators to boost the team’s power rating, a requirement to reach the postseason, the coach said.

Before the game, light showers sprinkled the field, but as soon as the game begun, the rain started to make the field an unsafe place to play.

With two outs in the first inning, Vulcan left fielder Haunani Haasenritter lost grip of the bat on a 2-2 pitch, letting it fly into the fence in front of the Gator dugout. Vulcans coach Callen Perreira was concerned about safety, called timeout and met with home-plate umpire Henry Jung to discuss postponing the game.

“We don’t want anyone to get hurt out there. Us or them,” the coach said during the game’s postponement.

Jung, who said the field seemed playable to him, met with field umpire Eric Platt and the two determined the field was not safe to play on.

“I went out to my partner and he told me, ‘It is starting to get a little sloppy out there,’” said Jung, who is in his 24th year of umpiring. “If it becomes what we deem unsafe — we are responsible for the ballplayers.”

Jung said he is supposed to postpone a game for a minimum of 20 minutes. The umpire said the game was “unofficially canceled” but waited out the time to follow the rulebook.

Because the Vulcans came all the way from Hawaii, Platt said the umpire team was hesitant to cancel the game right away.

“If this was an across town high school game we would have stopped and called the game,” the umpire said.

The game against SF State was the first of a Bay Area road trip for the Vulcans with the team playing against Monterey Bay on Wednesday before heading to the tournament in Turlock.

Perreira and his team should be able to get some softball out of its trip as the National Weather Service Forecast Office is showing clear skies and little chance of rain on Wednesday and Friday. Although the team is accustomed to rain, the coach said wet weather in San Francisco is a little bit different.

“We get our share (of rain), but it’s not cold like this. It’s warm rain so we can handle it,” he said.

Gator starting pitcher Sabrina Garcia was also affected by the wet weather and said she had a hard time controlling her pitches.

“I thought I was going to hit them with the ball myself because it was so wet,” the freshman pitcher said in response seeing the bat slip out of Haasenritter’s hands. Garcia walked the first batter and got behind in the count during each of the four batters she faced.

Hawaii-Hilo (23-3, 11-1) is in second place in the Western Pacific Conference, and had a winning streak going — winning 15 games in a row before falling to BYU-Hawaii 2-3 on Saturday. As the 12th ranked team in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s top 25 poll, the team has outscored teams 116-28 during the last 15 games and have only allowed 1.86 runs per game.

Lansford made it a goal last week for her team to get above .500 overall, a requirement to qualify for the regional playoffs. The coach said the team responded last weekend.

“Crucial,” was all the coach could say about the victories. “When we execute, we can win with power.” The strong pitching and timely hitting, the coach said, helped raise the Gators to fourth place in the California Collegiate Athletic Association conference, tied with Cal State Bakersfield.

Senior second baseman Vanessa Rodrigue had two hits in each of the four games and scored two runs and had three RBIs in game two against Western Washington.
Three Gator pitchers got wins over the weekend with Kaitlin Klein picking up her first win against Western Washington throwing a complete game four-hitter in game two.

Senior Kristine Beristianos won two games over the weekend beating Monterey Bay twice in one day, shutting the Otters out in a complete game in the first match up and relieving Vanessa Truan in game two. Truan came in to relieve Beristianos in the first game against Western Washington, pitching five innings and getting five strikeouts for the win.