Rainbow Warriors open conference with doubleheader split

The Hawaii and Cal Poly baseball teams broke even the hard way, splitting a Big West doubleheader of extremes Saturday at Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

The Rainbow Warriors pounded out 18 hits — with every starter in the lineup getting at least one — to cruise to an 11-1 rout in the first game.

That opener became part of the doubleheader because of Friday’s rainout. In the second game, the Mustangs parlayed 22 hits and six UH errors into 15-5 victory.

The series’ rubber game is scheduled to start today at 10 a.m. Hawaii time.

“We need to get back at it,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said in a telephone call. “It would be great to win a Big West series on the road. But we’ve got to play better. Hopefully, the first-game ’Bows will show up rather than the second-game ’Bows.”

In the first game, left fielder Adam Fogel’s two-run double in the first inning staked the ’Bows to a 2-0 lead they would not relinquish.

Third baseman Josh Rojas’ two-run triple was key in a three-run third that pushed the advantage to 5-1. Center fielder Dylan Vchulek went 4-for-6, and catcher Kekai Rios and designated hitter Logan Pouelsen each contributed three hits.

That was enough cushion for Brendan Hornung (4-2), who struck out six, walked one and spaced six hits in his third complete game of the season. Hornung has a four-pitch repertoire, but was consistent with only his fastball. “He was up in the zone and really struggled with his secondary pitches,” Trapasso said.

But Hornung worked out of jams in the second, third and fourth innings. He threw strikes on 67 percent of his 104 pitches.

“I thought Hornung didn’t have his best stuff,” Trapasso said. “The way (the Mustangs) crushed the ball in the second game, I have to reconsider that. I guess Brendan did have good stuff.”

Trapasso said his pitchers “pounded the (strike) zone” in the second game. But the Mustangs pounded back. “That’ll happen sometimes,” Trapasso said. “They’re an aggressive offense. You can get a lot of early-count outs and first-pitch outs if you’re down in the zone. We had control, but we didn’t have command. We were throwing strikes, but everything was belt high. We were throwing pitches right down the middle, and they were crushing them.”

Trapasso said the second-game crosswinds created problems on flyballs — UH outfielders committed three errors — and the dry infield accelerated grounders. “Anything hit hard on the ground ate us up,” Trapasso said. “We’re coming from the slow turf (at Les Murakami Stadium) to the quicker natural surface, and we just need to be better than we were.”

Dominic DeMiero lasted 21⁄3 innings, his briefest outing of the season. Jackson Rees, who was a starter the past six weeks, gave up 10 hits and six runs (five earned) in 42⁄3 innings. “It bothers me when we don’t pitch well,” Trapasso said, “and it really bothers me when we don’t play good defense. We were really bad defensively. What did we have, six errors? We could have had seven or eight, honestly. There were a couple plays that should have been made in the outfield that weren’t called an error.”

The ’Bows were without Fogel, their top corner outfielder, after he suffered a sprained right ankle in the seventh inning of the first game. Fogel’s availability is listed as doubtful for today’s game.

“He’s been playing pretty solid left field for us,” Trapasso said. “I need Fogel. He needs to be out there. That’ll definitely be a challenge if he’s not ready.”