Aliviado leads UH to series win

Kaeo Aliviado said he let his team down on Friday.

Saturday, he carried them to a series win.

Aliviado became the first UH player to homer in three consecutive games since Jeff Van Doornum in 2010, connecting twice against Hofstra in a doubleheader sweep at Les Murakami Stadium.

Aliviado went deep for a two-run shot in the first inning of an 8-2 win in the opener and ignited a seven-run third inning in the second game with a three-run blast as the Rainbow Warriors (4-5) won 9-3.

Aliviado went 4-for-8 with three extra-base hits, three runs and six RBIs a day after striking out with the tying run on third and two outs in the ninth inning of a one-run loss to the Pride (2-6).

"I just felt like I let my team down with that last at-bat and should have come through but I didn’t," Aliviado said. "I wasn’t saying much in the locker room when I came in (Saturday) and my heart was kind of shocked still yet, but I came back and tried to do my best for the team."

Aliviado is just the second UH player in the past three years with multiple home runs in a season.

He’s hit three over the fence in his last 10 at-bats after hitting only one in his first 619 career ABs.

"He really showed his frustration (Friday) night and it was a real rough night for him," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "He came out (Saturday) with a complete positive outlook and mind-set like I knew he would because that’s just the way he does things and he gets right out of the gate with a two-run home run. It made you think he might have a good day."

Hawaii started the day with back-to-back three-run innings as it carried the momentum from the four-spot it put up in the ninth inning Friday.

Alan Baldwin had the first of his four hits with an RBI single in the first and Eric Ramirez singled home Jonathan Weeks, who started both games at shortstop, in the second to help UH lead 6-0.

It was plenty of offense for starter L.J. Brewster, who lost his shutout bid with two outs in the seventh inning when Eric Ferguson blooped a base hit inside the right-field line to score two.

Brewster (2-0) gave up six hits with two walks and five strikeouts to win his second straight start to open the season.

"(Hofstra) is very underrated as a hitting team and are very aggressive on the first pitch," Brewster said. "The key to getting them out was keeping the ball low in the zone and getting ahead of the hitters and not leaving anything over the plate because they hit well even in 0-2 counts."

Kyle Von Ruden (1-0) was tagged for four hits and two runs in the first inning of the second game before settling in to earn his first victory.

He retired 11 straight — striking out the side in the fourth — and left after pitching 52⁄3 innings. Reliever Matt Valencia replaced him with the bases loaded and walked in a run, but that was it for Hofstra.

Josh Pigg came on in the ninth and struck out the first two batters in seven pitchers.

"L.J. went out there and was as good as you can be. He was four-pitch command at 90 mph. He was outstanding," Trapasso said. "But what I was really impressed with is that second game where we get down two and Kyle looks like he might not get out of the first inning and all of a sudden settles down and pitches well.

"There was no panic like we had (Friday). Our guys kept it together and put up that seven-spot a couple of innings later."

Baldwin caught the second game after playing in the outfield in the first and was 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.

Ramirez added two hits and scored twice to finish 3-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs for the day.

Freshman J.J. Kitaoka got his first career hit in the second game, sending a base hit back up the middle to score Baldwin for a 6-2 lead.

After playing nine games in nine days, Hawaii will have two full days off before a practice on Tuesday. UH leaves Wednesday to open a four-game series at Pepperdine on Thursday.

"Especially when you have 20 new guys, you don’t know what you got for about 20 games and this team has the makings of being a good group," Trapasso said. "Today was the culmination of a long stretch, which is hard, yet we came out with great intensity and great energy and I was real happy for our guys."

E—MacDonald; Hagerty. DP—Hofstra 2; Hawaii 1. LOB—Hofstra 4; Hawaii 7. HR—Aliviado. HBP—Witkowski; Baldwin. SH—Weeks. SF—Ramirez; Ka‘aua. SB—Ventimilia; Aliviado; Richartz; Baldwin. CS—Witkowski; Leiderman; Ventimilia.

HBP—by Brewster (Witkowski); by Seibert (Baldwin); by K. Weissheier (Richartz). Umpires—(Plate): Bradley Hungerford. (First): Bill Barnes. (Third): Silvo Sid Aquilar. T—2:05. A—NA.

E—Kozlowski. LOB—Hofstra 9; Hawaii 8. 2B—Rouleau; Donovan; Fallon; Aliviado; Baldwin. HR—Aliviado. HBP—Annunziata; Baldwin. SH—Weeks; Miller. SF—Witkowski; Richartz. SB—Ferguson; Kitaoka. CS—Witkowski; Leiderman; Ventimilia.

WP—Kozlowski, Von Ruden, Pigg. HBP—by Kozloswki (Baldwin); by Von Ruden (Annunziata). PB—Weiss. Umpires—(Plate): Bill Barnes Bradley Hungerford. (First): Bill Barnes. (Third): Silvo Sid Aquilar. T—2:57. A—NA.