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Hawaii rallied for three runs in the eighth inning to beat 9th-ranked Oregon 4-3 in the college baseball season-opening game for both teams Friday at Les Murakami Stadium.
Jeff Van Doornum and Collin Bennett had run-scoring hits, and Michael Blake scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball.
Matt Sisto started and allowed all three Oregon runs (two earned) while yielding six hits. He struck out three and walked none.
Blair Walters got the win with 1 2/3 innings of spotless relief, and Lenny Linsky pitched a hitless ninth for the save.
A turnstile crowd of 3,409 saw UH trail until the eighth inning rally which featured consecutive one-out singles by Kolten Wong, Van Doornum and Blake, and then a double by Bennett off Oregon relief ace Scott McGough that plated Van Doornum to tie the game.
After David Peterson struck out for the second out, Blake scored on a passed ball with Sean Montplaisir at the plate for the eventual winning run.
Oregon opened the scoring in the third when Connor Hofman singled up the middle and later scored on Jack Marder’s grounder to second.
The Ducks made it 2-0 in the fourth with an unearned run as UH made two of its four errors.
The Rainbows got their first run of the season in the fifth. Zack Swasey led off the inning with a triple to right-center. One out later Breland Almadova’s bunt single drove in Swasey.
Hofman’s single in the seventh gave Oregon a 3-1 lead. He and Aaron Jones both paired hits for Oregon, while Wong and Van Doornum did the same for Hawaii.
