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Jared Deacon squeezed home Austin Diemer with the game-winning bunt single in the bottom of the 11th inning to give Cal State Fullerton a 2-1 win over Hawaii on Sunday night at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif.
Hawaii (15-25, 3-12 Big West) finishes 1-12 in the month of April with six one-run losses and has scored two runs or less in seven of those games.
Senior Scott Kuzminsky (3-5) took the loss despite pitching brilliantly in 5 2/3 innings of relief. Kuzminsky allowed five hits and two walks but constantly worked out of jams with five strikeouts before the final play of the game.
Starter Jarrett Arakawa pitched for the first time since leaving a game against UC Irvine on April 6 after recording only one out. Arakawa gave up one run on five hits in 4 2/3 innings with one walk and two strikeouts.
Cal State Fullerton starter Grahamm Wiest pitched 10 innings and allowed one run on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.
Reliever Koby Gauna (2-2) allowed a one-out single to Trevor Podratz in the 10th and Stephen Ventimilia reached on an error to put runners on first and second with one out.
Junior Kaeo Aliviado, who had his streak of 23 consecutive games reaching base snapped, struck out for the second out and Ventimilia got caught in a rundown between first and second as UH squandered a scoring opportunity.
Kuzminsky hit Diemer with a pitch to start the bottom of the 11th and Diemer stole second on the very next pitch. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runner to third, Deacon pushed a bunt toward third that scored Diemer easily to end the game.
Hawaii dropped to 3-12 this season in one-run games. The Titans (21-17, 6-6) played extra innings for the third time in their last four games.
Ventimilia singled and scored on a two-out RBI single by Marc Flores in the fourth inning. Flores finished with two of Hawaii’s five hits.
The Rainbow Warriors return home where they will play 10 of their final 13 games, beginning with a four-game series against New York Institute of Technology on Friday.
