{"id":217704,"date":"2026-01-03T04:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/217704\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T04:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:02:08","slug":"softball-releases-2026-schedule-university-of-hawaii-at-manoa-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/217704\/","title":{"rendered":"Softball Releases 2026 Schedule &#8211; University of Hawai&#8217;i at Manoa Athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                    &#13;<br \/>\n                        Story Links&#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<\/p>\n<p>                     HONOLULU\u2014University of Hawai&#8217;i&#8217;s first-year head softball coach Panita Thanatharn has released the 2026 schedule. Hawai&#8217;i will play a total of 52 games, including 21 home games at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHome Opener<br \/>\nFor the first time since 2000, the Rainbow Wahine will host just two non-conference home tournaments (against DI opponents). Hawai&#8217;i opens the 2026 season hosting the Paradise Classic (Feb. 5-7) as North Dakota, Pacific and SeattleU will all kick off the new year in Honolulu. The Rainbow Wahine kick their season off against SeattleU\u00a0on Thursday, Feb. 5th at 5:00 p.m. HT.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nRoad tournaments<br \/>\nThe &#8216;Bows will then hit the road for a pair of back-to-back road tournaments in California. Hawai&#8217;i will first head to Riverside, Calif. to compete in the CBU (Cal Baptist) Classic. UH will play two games vs. former WAC-rival, Utah State on Feb. 14th and 15th. Hawai&#8217;i will then take on LMU to conclude their doubleheader on the 15th. UH will end the tourney on Feb. 16th with a single game against host school, Cal Baptist.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFinal Non-Conference Tournament<br \/>\nHawai&#8217;i will then travel east to play six games in three games at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, Calif.. The Rainbow Wahine will play three-consecutive doubleheaders on three-straight days. On Thursday, Feb. 19, UH will take on BYU and Duke, followed by Nebraska and Oregon State on Friday, Feb. 20. The &#8216;Bows will close the tournament playing Saint Mary&#8217;s (CA) and an exhibition game vs. Team Japan on Saturday, Feb. 21.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Rainbow Wahine will return home to host its second and final non-conference tournament from Feb. 26-28. The OUTRIGGER Classic will feature Mercyhurst, and Portland State to the three-day tourney.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFinal Season in Big West<br \/>\nThe Rainbow Wahine will open their final season in the Big West with its first of five conference roadtrips at UC Davis. The &#8216;Bows will begin their battle against the Aggies with a doubleheader on Friday, March 6 and a single game on Saturday, March 7 at La Rue Field.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHawai&#8217;i will return to the RWSS to host its conference \u00a0home opener against Cal State Fullerton starting with a doubleheader on Friday, March 13 followed by a single game on Saturday, March 14th.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nAfter alternating a road series at Long Beach State (March 20-21) and a home series vs. CSUN (March 27-28), the Rainbow Wahine will play a mid-week single game against 2025 Women&#8217;s College World Series competetor, UCLA at Easton Stadium on Thursday, April 2nd prior to their series at UC Santa Barbara (April 3-4).<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Rainbow Wahine will then host a doubleheader on Friday, April 10th against Cal State Bakersfield followed by a single game on Saturday, April 11th as Hawai&#8217;i celebrates Senior Night as it honors its seven seniors.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Big West&#8217;s top six teams will compete for the conference title in the 2026 Big West Softball Championship, with the champion earning an automatic berth in the NCAA Championship. The four-day double-elimination format will take place on the campus of Cal State Fullerton at Anderson Family Field for the second straight season.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe 2026 Rainbow Wahine<br \/>\nThe Rainbow Wahine return 17\u00a0letterwinners\u2014including six starters and two pitchers from last year&#8217;s squad which posted a 33-20 overall record and\u00a0a 17-10 Big West mark to finish the conference season in a four-way tie for second. This year&#8217;s team welcomes in seven newcomers including three transfers and four freshmen. The &#8216;Bows return three of its top five hitters from a year ago. Junior\u00a0first baseman\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/jamie-mcgaughey\/21794\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jamie McGaughey<\/a>\u00a0earned all-Big West second team honors after hitting a .320 average (54-for-157)\u00a0while leading the Big Wes with\u00a014 home runs. Senior second baseman\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/carys-murakami\/21807\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carys Murakami<\/a>\u00a0finished her first season at UH hitting just a shade under .300, posting a .295 average (46-for-156) with a team-high 28 runs scored, while junior shortstop\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/milan-ah-yat\/21800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Milan Ah Yat<\/a>\u00a0finished with a .277 batting average. All three Rainbow Wahine\u2014McGaughey, Murakami and Ah Yat\u2014started all 53 games last year.<\/p>\n<p>The pitching staff returns\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/macy-brandl\/21801\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Macy Brandl<\/a>\u00a0and Millie Fidge. Brandl led UH with a 17-8 record and a 3.33 ERA. She tossed 16 complete games with six shutouts as a sophomore. Fidge was primarily used as a reliever making 20 appearances with just one start. She posted a 4.07 ERA\u00a0 while recording a 2-1 overall record. The Rainbow Wahine welcome in three new pitchers\u2014true freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/maryn-macneil\/22327\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"22327\" target=\"_blank\">Maryn Macneil<\/a>, sophomore transfer <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/taryn-irimata\/22326\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"22326\" target=\"_blank\">Taryn Irimata<\/a>, and senior transfer <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/hannah-pitts\/22325\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"22325\" target=\"_blank\">Hannah Pitts<\/a>.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>#HawaiiSB<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Story Links&#13; &#13; HONOLULU\u2014University of Hawai&#8217;i&#8217;s first-year head softball coach Panita Thanatharn has released the 2026 schedule.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-217704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}