Hawaii rallies in ninth to beat Indiana

It was only fair after 36 tightly contested innings that the ball finally bounced Hawaii’s way.

Trailing by six runs midway through the eighth, the Rainbow Warriors avoided a four-game sweep on Kekai Rios’ walk-off single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth for an 11-10 victory over Indiana on Saturday afternoon at Les Murakami Stadium.

The last three batters of the game reached base for Hawaii (11-8), which was either tied or behind one run in the ninth inning of all four games this week against the Hoosiers (9-8-1).

After a balk forced in the tying run with two outs, Rios lifted a ball over the head of Logan Sowers in right field to score Johnny Weeks to complete a thrilling comeback in front of a crowd of 1,216.

“Those (losses) were heartbreakers where we were right in the game and Coach (Mike Trapasso) just told us to keep battling,” said Rios, who had three hits. “It finally turned out our way.”

UH allowed a season-high 10 runs but matched its season high scoring 11 times. Six of Hawaii’s 16 hits went for extra bases.

“Honestly we felt like we were equal to them in every phase but couldn’t get over the hump because we didn’t play clean enough,” Trapasso said. “Today we still didn’t play clean but we were able to overcome that.”

After two one-run losses and an extra-innings defeat in the last three nights, Hawaii faced its biggest deficit of the series after giving up five runs in the top of the eighth.

A sacrifice fly by Eric Ramirez cut the deficit to 10-6 in the bottom of the inning, and Adam Fogel was hit by a pitch to load the bases again for Alex Fitchett.

Fitchett, who drove in a career-high four runs, hit a ball to shallow right center that fell in for a rare three-run single to make it a one-run game.

Indiana stayed ahead 10-9 in the ninth inning and Hawaii was down to its final out with nobody on base.

Dylan Vchulek, who went 4-for-6 to up his batting average to a team-best .355, singled through the right side on the first pitch he saw from reliever Pauly Milto (0-2). Weeks followed with a check-swing pop-up that fell behind the bag at first for a hit to put runners on the corners.

A balk brought in Vchulek with the tying run and moved Weeks to second before Rios ended it.

“Instantly, and I love that rule,” Vchulek responded when asked if he saw the balk called on Milto, one of seven pitchers used by Indiana. “That was a great moment because that hard work we’ve put in wasn’t a letdown again.”

Vchulek, Weeks and Rios combined to hit .625 (10-for-16) at the top of UH’s 19th different batting order in 19 games.

Hawaii salvaged a résumé-building win to move three games over .500 with eight left before the start of conference play. Hawaii has never had a winning record entering Big West play since joining the conference in 2013.

“It’s more than just one game,” Fitchett said of the comeback. “It’s finishing not a very good week for us. You kind of had that feeling in the dugout that we were not going to go down without a fight and it’s kind of been that way since going to Minnesota.”

Starter Jackson Rees gave Hawaii five innings and allowed five runs on five hits with three walks.

Hawaii’s starters had gone at least seven innings in 10 of its 15 innings but outside of Brendan Hornung, combined to throw 15 1/3 innings in three games against Indiana. Neither Neil Uskali, Dominic DeMiero nor Rees managed to get out of the sixth inning.

Casey Ryan (1-0), who had pitched in the past two games, managed to get the final two outs in the top of the ninth inning to earn the win. Isaac Friesen, who hadn’t pitched all season, got the final out of the eighth inning.

“I knew once we tied it (in the ninth) we were running on fumes in the bullpen, and if we don’t win it here, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to put up another couple of zeros and go 11 or 12 innings,” Trapasso said. “A rally like that is special, especially with two outs and nobody on.”

UH continues its 16-game homestand Thursday against San Jose State, which is 8-9 overall and can sweep a series against Nevada with a win today.

Click here to see more photos.