Friday night’s baseball game between Seton Hall and Hawaii will be continued today at Les Murakami Stadium.
Seton Hall was leading, 8-7, with one out in the bottom of the seventh when play was halted because of a downpour at 8:58 p.m. After a delay of about 30 minutes, the umpires ruled the game would pick up today at 5 p.m. The regularly scheduled game will start 30 minutes after the postponed game’s conclusion.
The Pirates, who trailed 5-2 after the first inning, scored a run in the fifth and five in the sixth for an 8-6 lead. The ’Bows added a run in the sixth. UH shortstop Maaki Yamazaki drew a one-out walk when Seton Hall head coach Rob Sheppard argued the conditions were not playable. Home plate umpire Shawn Rakos agreed, then ordered the Pirates off the field. UH coach Mike Trapasso’s appeal was denied.
“I know we had the momentum, and now we’re
going to lose our pitcher who just put up a zero (in the top of the seventh),” Trapasso said.
Trapasso said Logan Pouelsen, who was making his first relief appearance after four starts, would not be used today. “He hasn’t done that all year,” Trapasso said of Pouelsen pitching on consecutive days.
Trapasso said he was
disappointed in UH’s pitching against an aggressive
Seton Hall offense. The Pirates amassed 14 hits in seven innings while drawing three walks.
“They were good and we weren’t good,” Trapasso said. “We have to figure out a way to get somebody out because we’re not pitching very well right now. We have to run the bases better and pitch better. These guys can really hit, and can hit the fastball. We didn’t throw anything today for a strike other than fastballs, and we didn’t locate it. That’s what happens against a good hitting team with a great approach.”
UH’s Jackson Rees overcame a shaky first inning to allow one run the next four innings. Rees was making his first start in two weeks. He was scratched from last week’s start because of a recurring broken nail that caused blood blisters on the middle finger of his right (pitching) hand.
Rees departed with a 5-3 lead after five innings. But the ’Bows bullpen — which already was short-handed because of middle reliever Colin Ashworth’s season-ending broken ankle
suffered on Wednesday — imploded in the Pirates’ five-run sixth. Kyle Hatton and Pouelsen surrendered five hits in the inning.
Hatton was chased after relinquishing four hits, including Casey Dana’s towering homer to left, to the five batters he faced. The lone out came on Rob Dadona’s run-scoring safety squeeze. Another run scored when second baseman Dustin Demeter dropped a throw from Yamazaki on a potential double-play grounder. The Pirates capped the rally with an RBI groundout and Ryan Ramiz’s run-scoring single.
The ’Bows closed to 8-7 in the sixth when Kekai Rios coaxed a walk, then scored on Demeter’s double to right-center. Demeter was thrown out trying to sprint to third. It was the third time a UH baserunner was nabbed attempting to take an extra base.
The Pirates came out aggressively, loading the bases on three consecutive hits in the first inning. A double play brought in one run and Sebastian Santorelli’s double made it 2-0.
But the Pirates’ lead had a shelf life of less than a half-inning. The ’Bows scored five runs in the bottom of the first. Yamazaki and Johnny Weeks opened with back-to-back singles. Then Adam Fogel grounded a single up the middle to plate Yamazaki. Weeks and Fogel advanced to third and second on Chayce Ka‘aua’s sacrifice. Weeks scored on Kekai Rios’ single, and Fogel came home on Eric Ramirez’s opposite-field double to the left-field corner. Rios and Ramirez both scored on Demeter’s single to center.
