A day after clinching an overall losing record for a fourth consecutive season, the Hawaii baseball team avoided a non-losing Big West campaign for the second straight year.
The Rainbow Warriors pulled off an improbable win at a place it had never won a series, taking two of three from No. 18 Cal State Fullerton with a 3-2 victory on Sunday at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif.
The Rainbow Warriors (23-27) handed the Titans (33-19, 15-6) just their second loss in 25 games when leading after seven innings and their only two home losses in conference play this season.
3
HAWAII
2
CS FULLERTON
KEY: Ethan Lopez singles home the go-ahead run with two outs in the top of the eighth inning.
NEXT: Hawaii vs. Arizona, 6:35 p.m. Friday, Les Murakami Stadium, 1420-AM
UH won four of its last five games in conference play to finish 12-12 in the Big West for the second consecutive season. UH was 17-34 in its first two years in the BWC after moving over from the WAC.
“No question that it’s good for us,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “Since we’re going to have so many guys coming back and that we went 12-12 last year and didn’t take a step backward is good, but the manner in which we did it — winning two of three at Cal State Fullerton — is really special for these kids.”
Hawaii had lost eight in a row against the Titans before winning two of three against the Big West leaders, who are up one game on Long Beach State with three to play.
Hawaii hadn’t scored more than five runs in any series against Fullerton since joining the Big West and finished with 12 this weekend.
Sunday started out as a pitcher’s duel between Hawaii junior Brendan Hornung and Cal State Fullerton freshman Colton Eastman.
Hornung retired nine in a row between the third inning and the fifth inning without allowing a ball out of the infield and was in a 0-0 game through five innings.
Jacob Sheldon-Collins led off the sixth, pulling a triple down the right-field line to snap a 4-for-32 skid. Hawaii scored first in all three games as Eric Ramirez drove him in with a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.
Hornung kept it going until the seventh inning when a well-played game turned into a circus.
It started when Marcus Doi dropped a fly ball in left field with two outs. Jake Pavletich singled on the next pitch and Hank LoForte worked a walk to load the bases and chase Hornung.
Lawrence Chew entered the game and gave up a two-run single to Josh Vargas as four straight Titans reached base with two outs.
“I was a little bit concerned when Marcus misplayed that ball in left field,” Trapasso said. “Then Vargas gets that hit and you’re thinking, ‘gee wiz, is this going to be another one of those crazy ridiculous hard-luck games that we’ve had about a dozen of this year?’”
It seemed that way considering the Titans were 23-1 when leading after seven innings and had in reliever Scott Serigstad, who was 1-0 with a 1.31 ERA.
Serigstad walked the first two batters of the inning and the tying run scored when Doi bunted a ball in front of the plate that was thrown wide of the bag at first.
Sheldon-Collins scored his second run of the game from second base and Ramirez was on third with nobody out.
Kekai Rios then hit a fly ball out to right that looked to have scored Ramirez from third, but Fullerton appealed the play the third and it was ruled Ramirez left early.
Ethan Lopez, who extend his hitting streak to 16 games with a single in the fifth inning, found a hole through the right side for a two-out single to score Doi from second and give UH a 3-2 lead.
Cody Culp (3-1) and Matt Valencia shut it down from then on with Culp earning the win and Valencia picking up his fourth save.
Hawaii won for only the third time in 21 games when trailing after seven innings.
“It was one of the best college baseball games you’ll see,” Trapasso said. “Two teams playing at a high level. It was a lot of fun.”
The Rainbow Warriors return home to end the season with a three-game series against No. 21 Arizona.
The Wildcats (33-20) finished fourth in the Pac-12 race and second among West Coast teams behind UC Santa Barbara with an RPI of 25.
BIG WEST BASEBALL
|
Conference |
|
|
|
Overall |
|
W |
L |
Pct. |
GB |
W |
L |
| CS Fullerton |
15 |
6 |
.714 |
— |
33 |
19 |
| Long Beach St. |
14 |
7 |
.667 |
1 |
35 |
18 |
| UCSB |
12 |
9 |
.571 |
3 |
35 |
16* |
| Hawaii |
12 |
12 |
.500 |
4 1/2 |
23 |
27 |
| CSUN |
10 |
11 |
.476 |
5 |
32 |
20 |
| Cal Poly |
10 |
11 |
.476 |
5 |
30 |
24 |
| UC Riverside |
10 |
11 |
.476 |
5 |
24 |
28 |
| UC Irvine |
9 |
12 |
.429 |
6 |
29 |
24 |
| UC Davis |
4 |
17 |
.190 |
11 |
16 |
33 |
*1 tie
Sunday
Hawaii 3, Cal State Fullerton 2
Long Beach State 11, UC Davis 1
Cal Poly 6, UC Riverside 4
UC Santa Barbara 9, UC Irvine 5
*Purdue 8, CSUN 0
Today
*Gonzaga at UC Santa Barbara
Tuesday
*USC at Cal State Fullerton
*non-conference
HAWAII 3, CAL STATE FULLERTON 2
| RAINBOW WARRIORS |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
| LoCoco cf |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
| Weeks 3b |
5 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Sheldon-Collins ss |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Ramirez 1b |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
| Doi lf |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Rios c |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Lopez rf |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| Ka’aua dh |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Rojas 2b |
3 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| TOTALS |
30 |
3 |
8 |
2 |
6 |
9 |
| TITANS |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
| Vargas lf |
4 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
| Richards ss |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Pinkston 1b |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Hudgins ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Kauhaahaa 3b |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Stieb ph/cf |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Bravo c |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Blaser rf/1b |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Cardenas dh |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Hurst cf/rf |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Pavletich 3b/1b |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Wix pr |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| LoForte 2b |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Pacheco ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| TOTALS |
34 |
2 |
8 |
2 |
2 |
7 |
| Hawaii (23-27, 12-12) |
000 |
001 |
020 |
— |
3 |
8 |
1 |
| CSF (33-19, 15-6) |
000 |
000 |
200 |
— |
2 |
8 |
2 |
E—Doi, LoForte, Serigstad. DP—Hawaii 1, CS Fullerton 3. LOB—Hawaii 8, CS Fullerton 7. 2B—Pinkston. 3B—Sheldon-Collins. SH—Doi, Ka’aua. CS—Lopez.
| HAWAII |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
| Hornung |
6 2/3 |
7 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
5 |
| Chew |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Culp (W, 3-1) |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Valencia (S, 4) |
1 1/3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| CAL STATE FULLERTON |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
| Eastman |
6 2/3 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
8 |
| Serigstad (L, 1-1) |
1 1/3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
| Prohoroff |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
WP—Serigstad.
Chew faced 1 batter in the 7th.
Umpires—(Plate): Kelly Gonzales. (First): Paul Graham. (Third): Patrick Riley.
T—2:56. A—1,660.
