UH holds on for season-opening victory

Hawaii’s first Big West victory over UC Irvine just wasn’t going to be easy.

The Rainbow Warriors gave up four unearned runs in the top of the eighth before getting most of it back on a three-run bloop double by Matt LoCoco to hold on for an 8-4 victory Friday night.

A Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,535 was put through the wringer in a frantic final two innings that lasted an hour.

Hawaii (12-14, 1-0), which was 0-9 in conference against the Anteaters (15-8, 0-1), took a 5-0 lead into the eighth, when it committed three errors that led to four UCI runs.

LoCoco saved the game when he dropped a pop-up between two diving Anteaters in shallow center that fell with two outs to clear the bases.

UH walked the first two batters in the ninth inning but was bailed out by seldom-used reliever Kyle Mitchell, who got three straight outs for his first save.

“We’re not going to make it easy on ourselves, I guess, but it’s all mostly positive because we played so well for seven innings,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “We got to that point with the first error and then guys are hoping for things to go well instead of smelling the game in that situation and just shutting it down right there.”

LoCoco, who has reached base to lead off the first inning in six of his past eight games, had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.

He popped up a pitch into shallow center that fell between second baseman Cole Kreuter and center fielder Keston Hiura.

The hit cleared the bases and stretched UH’s lead from one run to four.

“We expect big things out of this team,” LoCoco said. “We think we’re tougher than last year’s team, and even though we faltered a little bit, I don’t think there was any doubt in that dugout we were going to pull it out.”

LoCoco was one of four Rainbow Warriors with two hits. Hawaii had 11 hits to UC Irvine’s five and gave starter Brendan Hornung more run support in the first inning than he’d had in his previous three games combined.

All four runs charged to Hornung were unearned as the junior right-hander lasted 7 2/3 innings and struck out six with no walks to lower his ERA to 2.15.

“All of my pitches were working pretty good tonight and the eighth-inning ground balls here and there were hitting holes and (UCI) was doing hit-and-runs and putting it in the right spot,” Hornung said. “Once I got three in the first inning I got to sit back and cruise and challenge hitters first-pitch fastball.”

UH let UCI back into the game in the eighth with three of its four errors. UCI catcher Alex Guenette reached on a throwing error by Johnny Weeks at third and advanced to third on a stolen base and a throwing error into center by catcher Kekai Rios.

Grant Palmer singled home Guenette and Parker Coss singled on a hit-and-run to put runners on first and second with nobody out.

Hornung got the next two guys out but was tagged for a two-run double by the top hitter in the conference, Hiura, who drove a ball off the glove of LoCoco in center to bring in two more.

Cody Culp relieved Hornung and got a grounder to second, but Josh Rojas booted the ball, allowing Hiura to score from second to make it 5-4.

With the tying run on second after a hit batter, UH brought in Matt Valencia, who battled back from a 3-0 count to strike out pinch hitter Andrew Martinez to end the inning.

Valencia walked two to lead off the ninth to force Trapasso to bring in Mitchell, who had pitched only 41⁄3 innings in five appearances.

Mitchell put a quick end to the game, getting two pop-ups and a strikeout to finish it.

“You’ve just got to stay loose and keep grinding and when your name gets called you have to step up,” Mitchell said. “Every time I go on the mound I try to flush all of the pressure and the entire atmosphere of this ballpark and these fans and I tell myself it’s the same game I’ve played since I was a little kid.”

Marcus Doi finished 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored and Chayce Ka’aua had two hits, including a two-run single in the first inning to put Hawaii ahead 3-0.

UC Irvine starter Elliott Surrey (2-2), who threw a six-hit complete game shutout against UH last season, allowed nine hits and five runs in six innings to take the loss.

“I don’t know if offensively we were feeling a little guilty about Hornung’s fate the last couple of outings, but I just think our guys were fired up to play the first game of conference,” Trapasso said. “They were fired up to play such a good team in Irvine and do what they could to get the monkey off our back since they’ve had our number.”

BIG WEST BASEBALL

Friday

Hawaii 8, UC Irvine 4

UCSB 4, Long Beach St. 3

UC Riverside 5, UC Davis 3

Cal Poly 7, San Jose St 4

CS Fullerton 7, CSUN 4

Today

UC Irvine at Hawaii, 6:35 p.m., Les Murakami Stadium

UCSB at Long Beach St.

UC Davis at UC Riverside

San Jose St. at Cal Poly

CSUN at CS Fullerton

Sunday

UC Irvine at Hawaii, 1:05 p.m., Les Murakami Stadium

UC Davis at UC Riverside

CSUN at CS Fullerton

UCSB at Long Beach St.

San Jose St. at Cal Poly

HAWAII 8, UC IRVINE 4

E–Coss, Surrey, Weeks, Sheldon-Collins, Rios, Rojas. DP–UCI 1. LOB–UCI 6, Hawaii 6. 2B-Hiura, Holland, LoCoco, Doi. 3B–none. HBP–Holland. SH–Weeks, Ka’aua, Rojas. SF–none. CS–Sheldon-Collins.

Culp faced 2 batters in the 7th

WP-Surrey. HBP–by Culp (Holland).

Umpires–(Plate): Billy Haze. (First): Darren Hyman. (Third): Greg Charles. T–2:49. A–1,535.