Judging a baseball team by one game never really makes sense. Especially early in the season.
But you couldn’t blame at least a bit of skepticism about the re-booted University of Hawaii team after its season opener Friday night. Speaking of boots, the skittish Rainbow Warriors had more errors (six) than hits (four) as they were trounced by Oregon 12-0 before a full and Kona wind-blown house.
As bad as that was, Sunday was a beautiful day for the home crowd at Les Murakami Stadium … and not just because the tradewinds had returned. UH turned the tables and went Duck hunting from the first inning on the way to a 10-1 rout.
Oregon rallied to win late in Saturday’s game and is up in the series 2-1. But Hawaii has held a lead in 13 innings to just 12 for Oregon.
So far the series has lived up to the truism of momentum being dependent nearly totally on your next starting pitcher, and the efforts by Quintin Torres-Costa and LJ Brewster handcuffed the 16th-ranked Ducks in the weekend games.
"By far the best Oregon lineup we’ve faced," coach Mike Trapasso said.
And the Rainbows finally got a win after 13 losses to George Horton’s crew, as Sunday’s complete effort also included great hitting and defense.
Brewster and Cody Culp in 3 2/3 innings of relief weren’t the only stellar arms factoring in the outcome. Left fielder Matt LoCoco, catcher Chayce Ka‘aua, shortstop Jacob Sheldon-Collins, and Alan Baldwin replacing LoCoco in left all gunned down Ducks trying to take liberties on the basepaths.
LoCoco and Ka‘aua helped Oregon run itself out of a potential big inning in the first. Then LoCoco started off Hawaii’s five-run first with a single.
And then, with three more runs in the second, UH had more hits in the first two innings Sunday than it did in the first two games.
There was a temptation to say game over with the Rainbows up 8-0 after two, but Trapasso knows better. That’s why he said Ka‘aua’s two-run double in the sixth was key; Oregon had finally scored in the top half of the frame, and the Ducks were capable of getting back into it.
That top of the sixth could’ve been way worse for Hawaii if not for a double play you don’t see too often — especially against a team trailing by seven runs. After catching a foul pop-up, Sheldon-Collins threw to Culp covering third to nail Jakob Goldfarb and end the threat.
It certainly didn’t look like something a team capable of making six errors in a game could do.
"I saw the runner tagging up, so I hustled over there," Culp said. "Sheldo was right on target, as usual."
Sheldon-Collins also made a great diving stop to start a forceout, and seems to have chased the opening-night jitters that contributed to two errors.
The only downside Sunday was seeing talented sophomore Marcus Doi injured again.
The Rainbows did just about everything right for nine innings. If they do it again Monday, their fans can forget all about Friday. It’s apparent the players got it out of their system quickly … and many of them are new and not haunted by the program’s hard times in recent years.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
