Hawaii outslugged by Iowa in the Dairy Queen Classic

The University of Hawaii’s ninth-inning rally fell short in a 7-6 loss to Iowa in Friday’s opening round of the Dairy Queen Classic in Minnesota.

The outcome ended the Rainbow Warriors’ three-game winning streak and dropped their record to 4-5.

“We had a good offensive game, for the most part, against a very good pitcher,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said in a postgame phone interview.

Nick Gallagher, who is one of the Big Ten’s top pitchers, scattered seven hits and three runs in eight innings. Mixing a fastball with a hard slider, Gallagher struck out eight and walked none.

“That was as good a pitcher as we’ve seen,” Trapasso said. “He’s every bit as good as advertised.”

The Hawkeyes amassed 17 hits — Chris Whelan, Jake Adams and Ben Norman had three apiece — in support of Gallagher, who exited with a 7-3 lead.

Against reliever Zach Daniels, the ’Bows scored three runs in the ninth, and had runners at the corners when shortstop Dustin Demeter grounded out to end the game.

“As good as Gallagher was throwing, anybody was going to look more hittable,” Trapasso said. “But we got it started off with a leadoff walk (by Josh Rojas), and we put some good swings together and hit the ball hard.”

Leadoff hitter Dylan Vchulek and Demeter, who moved back into the No. 2 spot, each had three hits for the ’Bows.

“We battled and scratched and clawed,” said Trapasso, who noted starting pitcher Brendan Hornung “just didn’t have it today.”

Hornung, who entered with a 2.30 earned-run average and 0.93 WHIP, struggled to control his slider and split-fingered fastball. He allowed five runs — four earned — in six innings.

“He didn’t walk anybody, but he was just flat,” Trapasso said. “He didn’t have any real command of any of his off-speed (pitches).”

Adams, who is 6 feet 2 and 250 pounds, powered a two-run homer in the first. He added an RBI single in the third to extend the Hawkeyes’ lead to 3-1. Whelan also homered for Iowa.

“We just didn’t pitch well enough to win,” Trapasso said.

But in a Freaky Friday switch, it was UH’s struggling offense that emerged in the first two games of this trip. In the first seven games, the ’Bows hit .202, with no home runs, and averaged 2.43 runs per game. In the past two days, the ’Bows are batting .333, with two homers and 17 runs.

Hawaii appears comfortable playing in spacious U.S. Bank Stadium, the Minnesota Vikings’ home football field.

“It’s just baseball,” Trapasso said. “Go up there, see ball, hit ball. We did. We’re seeing the ball better the past two days than we had the first seven games at home.”