‘Bows give 1 to CSUN

Quintin Torres-Costa has emphatically locked down the closer role out of the bullpen.

Now the challenge for the Hawaii baseball team is getting its set-up guys back on track.

A chance to sweep CSUN at Les Murakami Stadium went away as soon as starter Jarrett Arakawa ran into trouble in the sixth inning.

Dylan Alexander hit the go-ahead single off reliever Cody Culp in the sixth inning and the Matadors struck for three more runs in the seventh off Culp and Matt Valencia to pull out a 7-3 victory and salvage a game in the series in front of a Sunday crowd of 1,355.

Hawaii (14-24, 5-7 Big West) won the series using only Torres-Costa out of the bullpen in the first two games.

CSUN (23-15, 3-9), which scored three runs in the first 23 innings of the series, erased a 3-2 deficit against Culp and Valencia, who combined to give up five hits and three runs in 12⁄3 innings.

"We would have loved to make those three runs stand up and get a sweep, but that’s asking a lot," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "Valencia and Culp got a little roller-coaster ride going because Culp was really good Friday at Cal Poly and then struggled on Sunday. He’s been struggling overall the last three weeks and Valencia is kind of the same way."

UH made its only two errors of the series that led to two CSUN runs. Matadors starter Rayne Raven (5-3) allowed three unearned runs and struck out four in seven innings to earn the win.

Shortstop Yusuke Akitoshi had two throwing errors that led to three Hawaii runs — otherwise Raven and reliever Angel Rodriguez shut Hawaii down.

UH finished with 12 hits total in the series.

"A little bit of it had to do with us getting lucky because there were some balls (Hawaii) hit hard but right at us," CSUN coach Greg Moore said.

Two of the four runs allowed by Arakawa (2-2) were unearned.

Third baseman JJ Kitaoka misplayed a two-out grounder in the first inning that cost UH a run. Justin Toerner took second on a wild pitch and scored on Nolan Bumstead’s single to give CSUN its first lead of the series.

William Colantono doubled the lead with a two-out single past Kitaoka at third, who had trouble getting in front of the ball.

It was ruled a hit, but Kitaoka, who is 1-for-19 at the plate over his last seven games, was replaced defensively by freshman Jonathan Weeks in the third inning.

"The error in the first inning really set a bad tone, mostly because Jarrett was throwing the ball well and it got his pitch count up," Trapasso said. "JJ is a guy that’s got to get back out there and make those plays for us. It’s getting to his head a little bit."

After giving up the single to Colantono, Arakawa retired the next 10 Matadors in order, striking out the side in 11 pitches in the fifth inning.

Ryan Raslowsky led off the sixth with an infield chopper to short that Jacob Sheldon-Collins had no play on.

Toerner ripped a ball off Weeks at third that was ruled an error to put two on with no outs. After a bunt moved the runners into scoring position, Arakawa left a pitch up to Akitoshi, who hit it back up the middle for a single to drive in a run.

That was it for Arakawa, who threw a season-high 87 pitches and allowed five hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

"Give them credit, they got the hits with the runners in scoring position," Arakawa said. "We played two solid games and then had a couple errors today, a couple bad pitches, and we felt like we wanted to sweep them but they just beat us today."

Eric Ramirez extended his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI single in the fifth inning that gave UH a 3-2 lead.

Raven and Rodriguez retired 17 of the last 18 Hawaii hitters.

Hawaii, which is 5-1 at home in Big West games, hosts No. 10 UC Santa Barbara for a three-game series starting Friday. Nine of UH’s final 12 games are on the road.

CSUN 7, HAWAII 3

E–Akitoshi 2, Kitaoka, Weeks. DP–CSUN 1. LOB–CSUN 7, Hawaii 3. 2B–Alexander. HBP–Pak, Bumstead. SH–Raslowsky, Bumstead, Akitoshi, Weiss, Weeks. SF–Baldwin. SB–Toerner, Ventimilia.

WP–Valencia. HBP–by Jones (Pak), by Jones (Bumstead). PB–Ka’aua.
Umpires–(Plate): Don Crane. First): Gary Gilman. (Third): Johnny Pineda. T–2:36. A–1,355.

BIG WEST STANDINGS

*includes one tie for overall record

Sunday
CSUN 7, Hawaii 3
Long Beach State 10, UC Riverside 1
UC Irvine 6, UC Davis 3
UC Santa Barbara 7, Cal Poly 3
CS Fullerton 1, Maryland 0, 10 inn.
(nonconference)

Tuesday
San Jose State at UC Davis
Pepperdine at UC Santa Barbara
San Diego State at CSUN
UNLV at UC Riverside
Long Beach State at Loyola Marymount
Cal Poly at Santa Clara
UC Irvine at UCLA

Wednesday
CS Fullerton at CSU Bakersfield

Friday
UC Santa Barbara at Hawaii, 6:35 p.m.,
Les Murakami Stadium
UC Riverside at CSUN
Long Beach State at Cal Poly
UC Irvine at CS Fullerton
Pacific at UC Davis (nonconference)