Sisto snuffs Saint Mary’s

The milestone number for Matt Sisto on Friday night wasn’t 50.

After becoming the seventh Rainbow ever to start 50 games in a career, Sisto threw seven solid innings to earn an elusive sixth win of the season in Hawaii’s 3-2 victory over Saint Mary’s on Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

After winning five games in each of his first three seasons, the senior right-hander allowed two runs on five hits with one walk and three strikeouts to improve to 6-3 in front of a crowd of 2,136.

"That wasn’t lost on me," said Sisto, who is three wins away from breaking into the top 10 on the school’s all-time list. "It’s nice to break through that five barrier for a change and get a chance to get some more with a bunch of games left."

Hawaii (20-13) won for the sixth time in seven games, improving to 7-3 in games decided by one run.

Saint Mary’s starter Martin Agosta, the 76th-best prospect in the country, according to Baseball America, lost for the second time this season, allowing three runs on four hits in seven innings with two walks and eight strikeouts.

"We only got four hits, but that’s all you’re going to get against (Agosta) because he’s that good," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "You’ve got to match a guy like that pitch for pitch and play good defense and scratch across a couple of runs and we were able to do that."

Collin Bennett went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, scoring the game-winning run in the fifth inning on an error by the Gaels (15-16), who have lost eight of their past nine.

Hawaii failed to get a hit after the fourth inning but made its 3-2 lead stand behind Sisto and freshman Lawrence Chew, who worked the final two innings for his first save.

"It was my first time pitching at night here and the atmosphere was awesome," said Chew, who lowered his ERA to 2.22 in 10 appearances. "I thought I made a good pitch on the leadoff single, but I thought I did a good job and got the ‘W’ for Matt."

Cole Norton singled to start the eighth before Chew retired the final six batters he faced, striking out three.

"My thoughts were to just put him in because we were facing two lefties, a righty and two lefties, but shoot, he did such a good job … was throwing well and we didn’t have to go (to Brent) Harrison," Trapasso said.

Chew threw 21 pitches and will be available for Sunday’s doubleheader.

The teams will play a single game today and two on Sunday after a schedule change due to the Dalai Lama’s visit over the weekend.

The Rainbows gave Sisto an early 2-0 lead with single runs in the second and third innings.

UH loaded the bases with nobody out in the second on a hit, a walk and a hit batter. Agosta got Zack Swasey to bounce into a forceout at home before Max Duval lifted a sacrifice fly to center that scored Bennett.

UH played small ball to double its lead in the third after a leadoff single by Stephen Ventimilia, who moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kaeo Aliviado.

Collin Ferguson robbed Pi‘ikea Kitamura of an RBI hit with a diving stop at first before Ventimilia scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 lead.

Sisto retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced before the Gaels strung together three hits in the fourth inning.

A leadoff walk by Norton was just the sixth Sisto has allowed in 62 innings this year.

Ferguson followed with a single and Shawn O’Brien reached on an infield single off the glove of Sisto to load the bases with one out.

Chris Murphy drove in the first run with a single up the middle and Toby DeMello reached on a fielder’s choice, driving in Ferguson to tie the game at 2-all.

UH retook the lead in the bottom of the frame when Ferguson misplayed a pickoff throw by Agosta, allowing Bennett to score from third.