Rainbows muscle up to surprise No. 13 LSU

The University of Hawaii baseball team went far (4,136 miles) and deep (three home runs) for a surprising 4-2 victory over 13th-ranked Louisiana State Friday in Baton Rouge, La.

An Alex Box Stadium crowd of 10,686 was stunned into silence as Ethan Lopez, Maaki Yamazaki and Logan Pouelsen pounded solo home runs for the Rainbow Warriors. UH hit as many home runs through Friday’s first seven innings as it did the previous 11 games.

“We came here to play well,” said coach Mike Trapasso, whose ’Bows improved to 8-4. “We didn’t come all this way not to play well.”

Pouelsen’s first homer of the season broke a 2-all tie in the seventh, and led to the eventual ouster of right-hander Zack Hess.

Hess, a projected first-round pick in this year’s major league draft, earned the nickname “Wild Thing” based on the Charlie Sheen character in the movie “Major League.” On Friday, Hess was mostly a sure thing, mixing a 94- to 96-mph fastball with a sharp-breaking curve. Seven of Hess’ nine strikeouts were sealed on called third strikes.

“That made it even more special (that) we were able to get three runs off of him,” Trapasso said of Hess.

The Tigers scored a run in the first on a double, sacrifice and run-scoring error.

“After showing some nerves in the first inning, we really settled down and played a complete game,” Trapasso said.

Lopez’s homer tied it at 1 in the second inning, and Yamazaki’s drive gave UH the lead in the third.

UH right-hander Jackson Rees, who improved to 2-0, kept the Tigers off-balance with a darting fastball.

“His normal movement was more than usual,” Trapasso said. “He lives off the life of a fastball. Today, Jackson was conveniently wild. (The fastball) was hard to control, which brought on his four walks, but it was hard to hit.”

Rees spaced seven hits before exiting after six innings because of a re-broken nail on his right (pitching) hand. Rees found the escape hatch in the third and fourth innings. With a runner on second with two outs in the third, Rees fielded a grounder near the mound and out-raced LSU’s Beau Jordan to first. In the fourth, the Tigers filled the bases with one out. But Rees induced Hal Hughes to hit into a double play.

“The double play obviously was the key,” Trapasso said. “Jackson was sputtering a bit, but he made a great pitch. It was in the 6 hole. It wasn’t an easy play. But Maaki made a nice play (at short), and (second baseman Dustin) Demeter made a great turn. I thought that was a huge momentum swing for the game.”

Kekai Rios’ RBI single for a 4-2 lead in the ninth also proved to be helpful. In the bottom of the inning, the Tigers placed runners at second and third with one out.

“That fourth run was key,” Trapasso said. “It’s a whole different ballgame when you have the tying run on third and the winning run on second.”

Dylan Thomas struck out Antoine Duplantis, who entered hitting .333, on four pitches, and then coaxed Jordan into a flyout to right. Thomas earned his fifth save.

“I think our guys are used to playing in tight games, and used to playing in fun and loud places,” Trapasso said. “There were over 10,000 there tonight. It was a great atmosphere for college baseball.”

The teams meet today in the middle of this three-game series.