Everything is going right for first-place Hawaii.
The Rainbow Warriors scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning without a hit and then added two more with clutch at-bats from the bottom two guys in the lineup to pull out a gritty 6-3 victory over Cal Poly on Friday night.
A Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,109 saw Hawaii (17-15, 6-1 Big West) pick up its fourth win of the season when either tied or trailing after seven innings.
Eric Ramirez drew a leadoff walk, took third when Cal Poly botched a double play and scored on a wild pitch to put Hawaii ahead a run in the eighth inning.
Alex Fitchett, who had a seven-game hitting streak on the line, followed with a triple to left-center off Cal Poly closer Justin Calomeni and Josh Rojas put it away with a single to score Fitchett for the final margin.
“We’ve been playing really good baseball and the baseball gods were on our side tonight,” Fitchett said. “It was a dogfight back and forth and it wasn’t the prettiest game, but we found a way to win.”
A throwing error by Cal Poly (19-13, 2-2), which beat Cal State Fullerton twice in three games last weekend, allowed Hawaii to score two runs in the fourth to tie the game 2-2.
Ramirez was on first base with a leadoff walk in the eighth when Marcus Doi popped a bunt straight up into catcher Nick Meyer’s glove. Meyer had Ramirez doubled off easily at first but fired the throw into right field.
Chugging the whole way, Ramirez just made it to third and scored on a wild pitch after Calomeni got Kekai Rios to pop up for the second out.
“I was ready for the wild pitch, especially when it started pouring,” Ramirez said. “From first to third I was like, ‘ahh’, he’s sending me from second, it’s going to be close.”
Ramirez scored twice and had one of Hawaii’s 10 hits.
Doi went 2-for-4 with a double and scored a run and Jacob Sheldon-Collins extended his hitting streak to eight games with two singles.
Alex McKenna went 3-for-5 with two runs scored for Cal Poly, which made three costly errors that Hawaii took advantage of.
“We were both kind of slopping our way through it in a lot of ways, but yet, it’s OK winning ugly,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “We got a couple of breaks in that eighth inning and then a couple of big hits and we’ll take the breaks.”
Junior Brendan Hornung fell behind 2-0 in the third inning when he gave up three straight hits to the top three guys in Cal Poly’s lineup.
McKenna, Kyle Marinconz and Brett Barbier, who made it 2-0 with a double, combined to go 7-for-14 with all three of the Mustangs’ runs.
Hornung gave up seven hits, but managed to get through six innings, similar to his start last week at UC Davis, when he allowed five runs in the first two innings but then put up three straight zeros.
“In Big West play, particularly in this park, you just have to stay close and you never know what could happen,” Trapasso said. “Hornung was not good tonight from the get-go for the second outing in a row, but what the guy’s got is a tremendous heart. He gutted it out for six innings with nothing other than a big heart and a nice mustache.”
Cal Poly gifted the first two runs back to Hawaii in the fourth inning. Cal Poly starter Kyle Smith had runners on second and third when he recorded his fourth strikeout for the second out. Fitchett then hit a grounder to second, but Dylan Doherty stumbled and then threw it into the Cal Poly dugout, allowing both runners to score to make it a 2-2 game.
UH took the lead on Ramirez’s sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to score Matt LoCoco, who had two hits.
Cal Poly answered in the seventh, when Cody Culp gave up a two-out walk and then an RBI single to Barbier.
Matt Valencia replaced Culp with two outs and two on in the eighth and struck out pinch hitter Jake Mavropoulos.
He then finished the ninth to improve to 2-0 and maintain his 0.00 ERA through 12 2⁄3 innings.
“He was really sharp,” Trapasso said. “When he gets ahead and can go curveball like that he’s a real tough guy to hit off of.”
| MUSTANGS |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
| McKenna cf |
5 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Marinconz ss |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Barbier 1b |
5 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| Schuknecht rf |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| George lf |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Sanderson 3b |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Morgan dh |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Meyer c |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Doherty 2b |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Bunning 2b |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Mavropoulos ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| TOTALS |
37 |
3 |
11 |
2 |
2 |
6 |
| rainbow warriors |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
| LoCoco cf |
5 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Weeks 3b |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
| Sheldon-Collins ss |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Ramirez 1b |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Doi lf |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Rios c |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Ka’aua dh |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Fitchett rf |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Rojas 2b |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| TOTALS |
31 |
6 |
10 |
3 |
2 |
7 |
| Cal Poly (19-13, 2-2) |
002 |
000 |
|
100 |
|
— |
3 |
11 |
3 |
| Hawaii (17-15, 6-1) |
000 |
210 |
|
03X |
|
— |
6 |
10 |
1 |
E–Marinconz, Meyer, Doherty, Doi. DP–none. LOB–Cal Poly 9, Hawaii 7. HBPnone SH– Weeks, Rios, Ka’aua. SF– Ramirez SB–McKenna. CS–Barbier, Sheldon-Collins
| CAL POLY |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
| Smith (L, 4-3) |
7 1/3 |
8 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
| Calomeni |
1/3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
| Lee |
1/3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| hawaii |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
| Hornung |
6 |
7 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| Culp |
1 2/3 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| Valencia (W, 2-0) |
1 1/3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
WP-Calomeni. HBP–none. PB-none.
Umpires–(Plate): Adam Dowdy. (First): Jim Harmon. (Third): Chuck Becker. T–2:57. A–2,109
