Rainbows baseball blow it in ninth

Andrew Jones had New Mexico State down to its last strike when the lights flickered on Thursday at Les Murakami Stadium.

The umpires met near the first-base line, talked to both head coaches, then restarted the game after a quick delay.

Two pitches later, Michael Paulson tied the game with a two-run single to center and Daniel Kennon hit the go-ahead two-run single back up the middle as New Mexico State rallied with four runs in the top of the ninth inning to stun Hawaii, 6-5.

"Honestly, it’s as disappointing as you’ll ever see, but we didn’t deserve to win," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "They outplayed us from the first pitch to the last."

The Rainbow Warriors (7-14) were ahead 4-0 in the eighth inning when Cameron Haskins drilled a pinch-hit two-run homer off UH reliever Cody Culp to right to cut the lead in half.

Culp (0-2) gave up three more hits in the ninth before he was pulled with one out and was credited with five runs allowed to take the loss.

Hawaii has dropped nine of its past 11.

"We had our closer on the mound and he couldn’t get anybody out." Trapasso said. "We tried something different with (Andrew) Jones and he couldn’t get it done."

New Mexico State (3-15-1) was 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position before coming up with three big ones in the ninth.

UH was down to its final out when Jacob Sheldon-Collins drew a walk. Senior Kaeo Aliviado followed with a triple to the gap in right-center to score Sheldon-Collins and put the tying run on third with two outs.

Billy Conrad, the seventh New Mexico State pitcher used in the game, got J.J. Kitaoka to ground out to short to earn the Aggies’ first save of the season.

The rally cost Hawaii junior L.J. Brewster his fourth win. Brewster gave up career-highs of eight hits and five walks but didn’t allow a run over seven innings to lower his ERA to 1.83.

"Only because of L.J. were we lucky enough to be in the game," Trapasso said.

Hawaii left 15 runners on base and was 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. The teams combined to leave 28 runners on base.

UH has lost twice when holding a lead in the ninth.

UH had only three hits off six relievers over the final 42⁄3 innings after tagging Paulson for two runs on six hits in 41⁄3 innings.

Matt Stein got Marcus Doi to foul out to the catcher with two on in the eighth to earn the win.

Doi played for the first time after missing 17 games with a groin injury and was 0-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

Both teams squandered opportunities at the plate throughout the game. Hawaii got the leadoff runner aboard in the first five innings but could only score twice, plating two in the third on an RBI double by Eric Ramirez and a sacrifice fly by Doi.

Hawaii loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the first inning but didn’t score. Alex Sawelson flied out to center and Kitaoka was doubled off at second after Aliviado decided not to tag from third.

"We should have buried them in the first inning," Trapasso said.

UH left 11 on through the first six innings while the Aggies stranded nine runners through six innings against Brewster.

Aliviado saved a run in the top of the second when he threw out Jay Sheeley at the plate trying to score from second on a base hit by Paulson, the Aggies’ starting pitcher.

Brewster started to labor around the 70-pitch mark and walked the bases full in the sixth inning before Kennon flew out to center.

Hawaii finally extended the lead in the sixth, which was kickstarted by a leadoff double into the gap in right-center by catcher Chayce Ka’aua. Sheldon-Collins followed with a bunt to third that bounced out of the glove of Aaron Duran covering at first, allowing Ka’aua to score from second.

Alex Sawelson added a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.

Sheldon-Collins swiped second in the inning to give UH its first stolen base in 11 games. Hawaii hadn’t attempted a stolen base since the final game of the Hofstra series.

E–Duran, Mack, Umphres. DP–New Mexico State 1, Hawaii 1. LOB–New Mexico State 13, Hawaii 15. 2B–Paulson, Ramirez, Ka’aua. 3B–Aliviado. HR–Haskins. HBP–Aliviado. SH–Baldwin, Sheldon-Collins, Johnson, Sheeley. SF–Sawelson, Doi. SB–Sheldon-Collins, Sheeley.

Higginbottom pitched to three batters in the sixth inning. WP–Aguirre. HBP–by Paulson (Aliviado). Umpires–(Plate): Anthony Norris. (First): Ryan Bleiberg. (Third): Allen Williams. T–3:39 A–1,255.