’Bows win series at Northridge

The Hawaii baseball team used strategic changes en route to Sunday’s 7-6 road victory over Cal State Northridge.

The Rainbow Warriors won twice in this three-game series to improve to 24-15 overall and 6-6 in the Big West. The ’Bows surpassed last year’s victory total, when they finished 23-30.

Taking advantage of hitter-friendly Matador Field, the ’Bows scrapped small-ball tactics — bunting or calling for steals — to rally from a 4-0 deficit. (Josh Rojas, who has the green light when he is on second, stole third on his own.)

“The ballpark is so conducive to offense,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said in a telephone interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “There’s no reason to give up any outs by bunting guys over. You’re going to give up runs by giving up outs to bunt guys over. You can’t play for one run in this ballpark. You have to play for the big inning. For the most part, we shut it down on any kind of small ball. We told our guys to go up there and hit for the gaps, and that’s what we did.”

The ’Bows had six hits in a five-run fifth inning to take a 6-4 lead.

The Matadors tied it at 6 on freshman Harrison Hart’s two-run homer to left in the bottom of the fifth.

But in the seventh, UH’s Adam Fogel reached on third baseman Nolan Bumstead’s error, advanced to second on pitcher Ray Diaz’s errant pick-off throw, and scored on Logan Pouelsen’s opposite-field single to left. Pouelsen had pulled pitches on six of eight previous balls he put in play.

“He got a fastball away and he stayed on it,” Trapasso said. “He didn’t try to do too much with it. He knew if he got the base hit, it would score the run. That was a pretty mature at-bat for a freshman.”

UH starter Neil Uskali was lifted after surrendering eight hits and four runs in three innings.

“It was a struggle for Neil,” Trapasso said. “He just didn’t have it. He didn’t have any command, any location whatsoever. Everything was just up. And he couldn’t throw anything for strikes.”

Brody Hagel-Pitt pitched two innings, relinquishing Hart’s homer. “He got us out of a jam with a runner on third and no outs when he came in, and he stopped them from scoring,” Trapasso said. “He made one bad pitch. The one bad pitch he threw, the guy hit it into the trees.”

Kyle Mitchell threw 12⁄3 innings, but exited after beaning consecutive batters with two outs in the seventh. Trapasso said Mitchell is a once-through-a-lineup pitcher, and he already had faced seven batters.

Dylan “Blade” Thomas walked the next batter to load the bases, but then induced the inning-ending flyout. Thomas pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth for his sixth save.

“I was really impressed with our bullpen,” Trapasso said. “To be able to put up four zeros to finish that game, in this ball park, is impressive, as much as we struggled pitching this weekend.”

The ’Bows, who had struggled defensively in the previous three series, did not commit an error in these three games. The game ended when a sharp grounder ricocheted off third baseman Josh Rojas to shortstop Dustin Demeter, who threw out Hart at first.

“I thought it was a fitting end for a crazy weekend,” Trapasso said. “We made not just the routine plays but some really outstanding plays. We’re a better defensive club than we’ve been the (previous) couple weeks. We got back to basics.”

Sunday

Hawaii 7, Cal State Northridge 6

UC Irvine 12, Cal State Fullerton 4

UC Santa Barbara 6, UC Riverside 5

Long Beach State 10, UC Davis 2

x-UCLA 5, Cal Poly 4

x—non-conference