By ERIN BASS

Associate Sports Editor

Senior center fielder Amber Miles and freshman second baseman Rochelle Sandberg led the Lady Techsters (18-38, 2-7 WAC) offensively this past weekend against Hawaii (29-20, 10-5 WAC) by combining for 10 hits in 18 at bats, three runs scored and two RBI.

Miles scored two of Tech's five runs and went four for ten at the plate in the three-game conference series against the Rainbow Wahine in Manoa, Hawaii.

"I had been over analyzing everything every time I went to bat," Miles said. "So this time I just didn't think about it. See the ball, hit the ball. It was as simple as that."

Although Miles' mental game was up, it was not enough to help the Lady Techsters over Hawaii, as the Wahine swept all three games from under them.

Sandberg registered one run, one RBI and six hits in eight at bats.

"I was really aggressive and jumped on the first strike I saw," Sandberg said.

In the game one opener last Friday, the Techsters remained scoreless until the top of the sixth, when freshman Regan Clark hit a double into right center field advancing Sandberg across home, which turned out to be their only run of the game.

Hawaii produced seven runs on 12 hits which won them the game 7-1.

"Despite the struggles, we did rally together as a team to get more runs later on," Tech head coach Sarah Dawson said.

"I am waiting for us to be able to rally runs, but we are still finding ways to take ourselves out of the game mentally and it's hurting us."

The first game of the conference double header last Saturday proved to be just as offensively disappointing as the game the night before.

The Rainbow Wahine were able to score one run in the bottom of the first four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Then the Lady Techsters finally got a chance to score when Miles hit a single to third base, stole second and was brought home by a Sandberg double.

Hawaii scored four more times in the bottom of the sixth inning to end the game 9-1.

In the last game of the series the Lady Techsters stepped it up a little, bringing home three runs in the top of the third.

First to run across home was freshman Sandy Carroll when Miles singled to left center. Then sophomore Jessica Elson and Miles scored back to back runs off of wild pitches.

But Hawaii answered back with two more runs in the bottom of the sixth, finalizing the score 6-3.

Tech is tied for fifth place in the Western Athletic Conference and will return to conference play this weekend against Fresno State (32-10, 8-1 WAC) who is first in conference.