‘Bows’ bats lead the way

It has taken Hawaii two games to do something it hadn’t done in its previous eight home games combined.

Conner George feasted on Wichita State pitching for the second straight game, tying a career high with three hits and three RBIs to lead the Rainbows to a 7-3 victory over the Shockers on Thursday night.

Hawaii treated a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,431 to a season-high 14 hits. Its 13 runs in two games against Wichita State (11-10) are two more than the Rainbows (4-15) scored against Rice and Gonzaga combined.

"I think that’s more than we had all season," said first baseman Marc Flores, who was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. "We’re seeing the ball finally and we put up 14 hits, which we haven’t done in a while."

Hawaii has won three straight since losing 15 of 16 to start the season, and is 8-2 in its past 10 games against the Shockers, who have lost five in a row.

Kaeo Aliviado went 3-for-3 with a double and two runs, and Trevor Podratz singled twice and drove in a run.

"Honestly, you don’t see that many college baseball games with 26 hits anymore, especially in this park with the new bats," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "The fact that we were able to eliminate those freebies and didn’t commit any errors allowed us to have this kind of game where you give up 12 hits."

Senior Corey MacDonald gave up 11 hits in 62⁄3 innings but only walked two and set a career high with seven strikeouts.

The Shockers scored two runs in the third but had the bases loaded with nobody out and only managed a run as MacDonald got Daniel Kihle to ground into a double play and Dayne Parker to ground out to third to limit the damage.

"Any time your team can put up six runs for you, it gives you confidence because you don’t have to pick around the hitters and can be a little more comfortable," MacDonald said. "With that big lead, I just went out trying to throw strikes to give us seven or eight innings."

MacDonald worked into the seventh inning for the fourth straight game, and Jon Flinn pitched 21⁄3 innings of shutout relief to allow the Rainbows to save their bullpen.

Flinn replaced MacDonald with two outs and runners on the corners in the seventh and served up an RBI single to Tyler Baker, who had two RBIs.

Flinn got Taylor Doggett to ground into a fielder’s choice and retired the next six batters he faced to end the game and earn the save.

"I thought Corey had his best stuff early and fatigued late but battled us through," Trapasso said. "I thought the job Jon Flinn did in the eighth inning was big and was key for us to be able to finish, because this is a great offensive club we were playing and a three-run lead is not safe even in this park."

Trapasso had both Matt Cooper and Scott Squier warming up in the bullpen but didn’t have to pitch his likely starters for the next two games.

Squier will pitch tonight against Wichita State ace Cale Elam (1-1, 2.84 ERA) as the Shockers will now go with their regular weekend starters.

Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson wanted to pitch his normal rotation Friday through Sunday to get ready for the start of Missouri Valley Conference play next week.

"We were going to go with Cooper in the eighth and Squier in the ninth if we had to and that’s what was so key about Jon finishing that up," Trapasso said. "Now we’re going to roll into their weekend rotation so I thought it was really important for us to have a good showing in games 1 and 2 against their midweek guys."

Zach Beringer (1-1) was saddled with the loss, allowing six runs on eight hits in four innings.