Entering a weekend of happy returns, Panita Thanatharn learned that she\u2019d be more than merely the coach in the visiting dugout at the Long Beach State Softball Complex.<\/p>\n
The longtime LBSU assistant was the co-guest of honor along with recently retired Beach coach Kim Sowder, Thanatharn\u2019s mentor who was instrumental in her career path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked me to catch her (ceremonial) first pitch, and she fired it at me, and I basically almost dropped it, almost got killed,\u201d Thanatharn, Hawaii\u2019s first-year coach, said with a laugh during a phone interview with Spectrum News on Sunday. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pictures and film of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, things went better \u2014 much better \u2014\u00a0for Thanatharn and the Rainbow Wahine, who closed out a rare series win over the Beach with Saturday\u2019s 3-2 comeback victory.<\/p>\n
LBSU (18-13, 6-3 BWC) is a program used to contending for conference championships and NCAA Tournament appearances, part of the reason Thanatharn was selected in June to succeed Bob Coolen for her first head-coaching job.<\/p>\n
Until Maycen Gibbs batted in the tying run in the sixth and came home for the go-ahead score on Jamie McGaughey\u2019s sacrifice fly, LBSU had taken all but three head-to-head series in the programs\u2019 lengthy history as conference opponents.<\/p>\n
Make it four with the weekend\u2019s 2-1 outcome; the teams split Friday\u2019s doubleheader, an 8-7 loss and a 10-0 mercy-shortened win highlighted by Milan Ah Yat’s grand slam. UH took its first series over the Beach at any site since 2019 and the first one at LBSU for the first time since 1991.<\/p>\n
Campbell alumna Taryn Irimata (4-6) starred in the circle in two five-inning performances for the Wahine, earning both of UH\u2019s wins. The Nevada transfer did not allow a run in either outing, and she set down the final six batters on Saturday.<\/p>\n
“That was really nice to see from Taryn,\u201d Thanatharn said. \u201cShe hasn\u2019t had her best stuff the last couple weekends, and Hannah Pitts has been doing an awesome job for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cHannah didn’t really have her stuff (Saturday) \u2026 and for Taryn to come in and pick up her teammates and pitchers, it was nice to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday was a reunion beyond just Thanatharn and Sowder; UH assistant Alyssa Gonzalez, a LBSU All-Big West first-teamer in 2019, was part of the festivities. Many former players and program supporters were present.<\/p>\n
The Beach Hall of Famer Sowder was an assistant coach for most of Thanatharn\u2019s six-year playing career and assumed the head job for Thanatharn\u2019s final season as a student-athlete in 2007. Thanathan was lured (\u201ctricked,\u201d she jokes) into joining the staff by an offer of helping to recruit heading into 2007-08, when the staff needed help due to Olympics obligations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was grateful for them to do it a weekend where we could come back and be able to be there for Kim,\u201d Thanatharn said. \u201cI mean, she\u2019s a huge mentor of mine. I\u2019ve spent I\u2019ve known her for over half my life, consider her family. So, just to be there was special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sowder retired in May, mere days before UH hired Thanatharn to succeed Bob Coolen. Kendall Fearn, a former lead assistant at San Diego State, was tapped to succeed Sowder.<\/p>\n
LBSU stunned No. 4 Oklahoma, 6-4, in the Mary Nutter Classic. Meanwhile, UH went 0-6 in the prestigious tournament in February in Cathedral City, Calif.<\/p>\n
The Wahine (13-14, 5-4) have applied those lessons in seemingly productive ways. They are 8-5 since and have already played two perennial Big West powers in LBSU and Cal State Fullerton. Three of their four league losses have been by one-run margins; the other was two.<\/p>\n
UH is scheduled to host Cal State Northridge (9-16, 5-4) at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by a doubleheader Saturday beginning at noon.<\/p>\n
Brian McInnis<\/a>\u00a0covers the state\u2019s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.\u00a0He can be reached at\u00a0brian.mcinnis@<\/a>charter.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering a weekend of happy returns, Panita Thanatharn learned that she\u2019d be more than merely the coach in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[19375,6632,6631,19376,1815,2289,131,133,132,127,136],"class_list":["post-233095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-app-college-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-brian-mcinnis","tag-college","tag-hawaii","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}