Maya Nakamura implored the Hawaii softball team to pick themselves up and carry on.

For at least one weekend, the Rainbow Wahine did.

UH rallied around the absence of its injured team leader and all-around best player and defeated UC Riverside 4-2 on Saturday to claim a road series win over the Highlanders at Amy S. Harrison Field in Riverside, Calif.

Nakamura, soon after learning she was done for her college career from a non-contact knee injury suffered against Cal Poly last weekend, gave an impassioned speech to the team in its weight room on Monday, before the rest of the team flew out to the mainland, according to head coach Bob Coolen.

Her words brought tears to the team's seniors, he said.

“She basically just said that ‘you can’t forget that you’re a team, and I’m just one component of it. I’ll be fine,’” Coolen told Spectrum News in a phone interview. “She calmed the team down and said, just step up and play.”

For the most part, it was able to do that against a bottom-half team in the Big West standings.

UH (15-19, 8-5 Big West) traded comeback wins with the Highlanders (12-23, 6-9) in Friday’s doubleheader, then rallied from a 2-0 deficit Saturday with two runs apiece in the fourth and fifth frames. It was the first road series win of the season for the Wahine.

Addison Kostrencich (9-6) went the distance for the win for the second time this weekend, this time on a five-hitter.

With two UCR baserunners on in the bottom of the seventh, first baseman Dallas Millwood snared a line drive off the bat of Lauryn Garewal to complete the victory. Coolen said the “amazing” play surely prevented UCR from tying the game.

“It’s great we have Dallas because Dallas takes over the reins,” Coolen said. “She’s the loud one, she’s the one the opposing team loves to hate. She just irritates people and gets us riled up. So, it was just a really good series win for us after everything that went down with Maya.”

Third baseman Ka‘ena Keliinoi led the Wahine with a 3-for-3 day that included the go-ahead chopper single up the middle in the fifth.

Freshman Madixx Muramoto got the start at second base to replace the All-Big West first-teamer Nakamura to begin the series. Coolen subbed her out after two quick errors Friday, but by the end of the weekend Muramoto had reclaimed the job. The Kalani alumna and granddaughter of Les Murakami went 1-for-3 with a run scored Saturday.

“It’s initiation by fire right now because we need performances. We can’t just be looking for people,” Coolen said.

Coolen has felt the loss of Nakamura beyond the field, he said, as the Roosevelt alumna doubled as an all-around organizer who would help keep things in order on team trips for the last three years.

UH hosts Cal State Bakersfield (4-33, 2-13) in a three-game series beginning 6 p.m. Friday at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

Usual contenders Cal State Fullerton (13-2 BWC) and Long Beach State (12-3) lead the league, followed by Cal Poly (11-3).

“We’re still in the hunt. We’re two or three games out of the loss column. We still have Fullerton and Long Beach to play, sandwiched in with Bakersfield and (UC) Davis. So we’ll see where we end up.”

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.