Rainbows throw away their chance to win

SACRAMENTO, Calif. » A long, hot afternoon came to a highly unsatisfying end for the Hawaii baseball team on Friday as the Rainbows took a 7-6 loss to Sacramento State in 12 innings. Derrick Chung had the winning hit for the Hornets, his second extra-inning walk-off RBI of the week.

The loss was tough to take for a host of reasons. Hawaii held a 6-4 lead entering the bottom of the ninth, only to lose the lead thanks to a double-error that set up David Del Grande’s two-run single. The Rainbows then left the bases loaded in the top of the 10th. Early on, they had a run taken off the board when Trevor Podratz missed third base on his way home in the second inning. And they made Hornets starter Dallas Chadwick look like an All-American. The sophomore right-hander fanned a career-high 10 in seven innings, and Hawaii finished with 13 strikeouts in the game.

It was a disappointing start to a three-game series, considering the Rainbows entered Friday’s game coming off of a three-game sweep of New Mexico State, which lifted them into first place in the Western Athletic Conference.

"We had the game won and threw the ball away," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "That’s out of character for us, so we’ve got to take care of the baseball and come back tomorrow. We lose that game in the ninth and we lose that game because we only score in two innings."

Said Rainbows third baseman Collin Bennett, "The offense definitely wasn’t clicking there for a while. We were striking out a little bit too much. Hopefully tomorrow we can just come out and make contact a little bit better."

Hawaii (28-19, 8-5 WAC) struggled against Chadwick, but had a chance to get on the board first in the second. Podratz led off with a walk and Bennett followed with a single to left that got through Hunter Adrian for an error. Podratz scored easily, but was called out on appeal.

The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the third, when Justin Highly tripled in Clay Cederquist, then scored on Andrew Ayers’ sacrifice fly. Chung doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly in the fourth to give Sacramento State (27-23, 9-7) a 3-0 lead.

The Rainbows finally broke out against Chadwick in the sixth. Stephen Ventimilia drew a one-out walk and Kaeo Aliviado followed with a chopper up the middle. Hornets shortstop Scotty Burcham tried to short-hop the ball and missed it for an error. Pi‘ikea Kitamura then singled in one run. After Aliviado was thrown out on Podratz’s infield grounder, Bennett stepped up and unloaded a bomb to left, well over the fence for a three-run homer. It was his first home run of the season.

Hawaii starter Matt Sisto allowed a double to Hunter and a single to Rhys Hoskins that tied the score in the bottom of the sixth. That was all the scoring until the ninth. Sisto, the WAC pitcher of the week last week, allowed four earned runs in six innings. Chadwick finished with four unearned runs allowed in seven innings.

Bennett put the Rainbows up temporarily in the top of the ninth with a two-run homer to left. However, when closer Brent Harrison took the mound in the bottom of the inning, things fell apart. Hoskins led off with a single. Will Soto hit a ground ball to second baseman Ventimilia, who fired the ball into left field trying to retire Hoskins, letting Hoskins advance all the way to third. UH left fielder Aliviado then threw wildly to third, allowing Soto to move up to second. Del Grande then singled to right to score both runners.

Finally, in the 12th, Chung put away the Rainbows. He finished a 4-for-6 day with a two-out single to score Burcham with the game-winner. It was a pretty good day for Chung, who also caught the entire afternoon. The win clinched a berth in the WAC tournament for Sacramento State.

"It feels good," Chung said. "We’re trying to win the conference."