RIVERSIDE, Calif. - UC Riverside opened a three-game series with Hawaii on Friday afternoon under the sun at Amy S. Harrison Field, falling 2-0 to the Rainbow Wahine at Amy S. Harrison Field.
Hawaii struck first early with a solo home run off Chrys Hildebrand in the top of the first before driving in a second run in the third inning.
Hildebrand fanned 11 batters in the series opener and now sits in second in UCR Division I history with 134 strikeouts on the season. The Yorba Linda native is up to 245 career strikeouts, good for fourth in the program's Division I history and fifth in all-time history.
Nadia Witt led off the fifth inning with a standup double down the left field line and Kat Montuya drew a five-pitch walk to put two runners on for the Highlanders, but no runs came across in the frame.
UCR and Hawaii will tee it up again with a doubleheader on Saturday to close out the three-game set. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+ and fans can purchase tickets at highlanderstickets.universitytickets.com.