UCSB clinches series over UH

Hawaii’s midseason tumble in Big West play continued Saturday.

Dempsey Grover broke an eighth-inning tie with a solo home run and No. 17 UC Santa Barbara clinched the series with a 6-3 victory over the Rainbow Warriors at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Grover crushed his second homer in as many games to lead off the eighth against Lawrence Chew (0-3), who took the loss for Hawaii (18-22, 7-7).

UH started the season 6-1 in conference play but has lost seven of its last eight games overall to fall back to .500 in league play with seven games remaining.

“We got back to grinding it out and had great energy and toughness but made too many mistakes,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “We always say victory goes to the team who makes the fewest mistakes and not the team who makes the most plays.”

JJ Muno went 2-for-3 and scored two runs for the Gauchos (28-10-1, 7-4), who were swept last weekend by Cal Poly.

Trevor Bettencourt (4-1) allowed one hit over three scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win for UCSB, which held Hawaii to six hits.

Eric Ramirez doubled twice and Marcus Doi doubled home the first of three UH runs in the fourth inning.

Freshman Ethan Lopez, who made his third start at second base in conference play, added a two-run single to give UH a 3-2 lead.

“Lopez is a guy that we’re all so high on and he needs to continue to get some at-bats and get some playing time because we all think he has a chance to be a special player,” Trapasso said.

Hawaii was shaky on defense with four errors and allowed the first UCSB run to score in the third inning on a bases-loaded walk.

The Gauchos tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a throwing error by Jacob Sheldon-Collins.

Ramirez led off the sixth inning with a double but was stranded at third. He added a two-out double in the eighth inning off the base of the wall but was again left on base.

Muno gave UCSB a 5-3 lead in the eighth inning when he scored on a wild pitch and Clay Fisher singled and scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 6-3.

Kyle Von Ruden gave Hawaii its first quality start in the last five games, giving up two earned runs in six innings with two walks and five strikeouts.

“KVR was really good today,” Trapasso said. “He worked out of several jams that our defense put him in and while we worked out of many of them it eventually caught up to us.”

Hawaii made changes to its lineup, starting catcher Kekai Rios in the cleanup spot and moving Ramirez down to sixth in the lineup for the first time this season.

Lopez got the start at second base and Conner Linebarger went 0-for-2 with a walk in his second start of the season.

“I think that E-Ram has been putting too much pressure on himself, so we put him down to the six hole and really that was his best game in weeks,” Trapasso said. “I thought something needed to be done because we’ve been in a funk and needed to shake things up.”

Linebarger took over in right field for Alex Fitchett, who was 1-for-15 in his last four games with eight strikeouts.

Left-hander Alex Hatch (3-5, 4.72 ERA), who has lost his last two starts, will take the mound today at 10 a.m.

BIG WEST BASEBALL

Saturday

UC Santa Barbara 6, Hawaii 3

Cal Poly 2, Long Beach State 0

Cal State Fullerton 6, UC Irvine 4

Cal State Northridge 7, UC Riverside 2

**UC Davis 7, Pacific 4

Today

Hawaii at UC Santa Barbara, 10 a.m. HST

Cal Poly at Long Beach State

Cal State Fullerton at UC Irvine

Cal State Northridge at UC Riverside

**UCLA at Cal State Fullerton

**–nonconference

E–Sheldon-Collins, Rios, Ramirez, Lopez, Fisher. DP–Hawaii 1, UCSB 1. LOB–Hawaii 8, UCSB 8. 2B–Doi, Ramirez, Clark. HR–Grover. HBP–Clark. SH–Linebarger, Muno, Fredrick, Clark. SF–Calica. SB–Muno, Clark.

HBP-by Von Ruden (Clark). Umpires–(Plate): Bill Barnes. (First): Bradly Hungerford. (Third): Chuck Lyon. T–2:45. A–500.