UC Davis still has a chance to leave the islands with a victory.
In the games that really mattered, it was all Hawaii.
The Rainbow Warriors finished off a three-game sweep of the Aggies in Big West play on Saturday night, scoring their most runs in a conference series since joining the Big West in 2013.
Jacob Sheldon-Collins tied the game with a two-run double in the second inning and Eric Ramirez went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs in an 8-4 victory in front of a crowd of 2,390.
UH outscored UC Davis 27-10, breaking its previous high of 22 runs scored at UC Santa Barbara last year.
The teams will play again Sunday in a game that won’t count toward the conference standings.
Hawaii (12-19, 3-3) did what it needed to do to get back to .500 in Big West play after two weeks for the first time.
"By this time the last couple of years you’re looking out of a hole you’ve dug for yourself," said Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso, whose team had been swept in the second week of conference play each of the past two years. "We dug that hole last weekend, but we came back from Irvine feeling good about our club because of how close we were and how we were playing. It definitely showed we took the positives from that series and built on those this weekend."
Hawaii’s starting pitching wasn’t quite as good as it has been in recent weeks, but it didn’t matter with an offense that has pounded out 34 hits in three games.
The ‘Bows had five extra base hits on Saturday, starting with Sheldon-Collins’ two-out double in the second that tied the game at 3.
Chayce Ka‘aua beat out a potential double play to keep the inning alive for Sheldon-Collins, who is 5-for-12 with four runs and four RBIs in the series.
"Coming out here and putting three (wins) on the board is a huge credit to the boys," Sheldon-Collins said. "It’s been a rough run until now (offensively), so it’s good to get a couple of hits and hopefully I can keep that with me and keep the confidence up."
Ramirez pushed Hawaii’s lead to 6-3 in the third inning with a two-run double after singling and scoring in the second.
Alan Baldwin, who had three hits, stroked a two-out triple in the fourth inning and Kaeo Aliviado, who was 2-for-4, led off with a ground-rule double in the seventh and scored one of his two runs.
Ka‘aua led off the eighth with his team-leading seventh double and scored the final run when Baldwin beat out an infield hit at first and the ball got away from Nick Lynch, allowing Ka‘aua to race home from third.
"It’s just a matter of getting over that hump, whether it’s one hit here or not making one mistake there and we did that," Baldwin said. "Everyone was swinging it one through nine. We’ve known we have something here since the fall and we’re a good team. We’re a lot more capable offensively and we’ve known that and we did that this week."
Senior Jarrett Arakawa (2-0) got off to a slow start on the mound, falling behind 3-0 in the second inning against Davis (18-10-1, 3-3).
Tanner Bily led off the game with a double and scored on Austin March’s two-out single on a 0-2 hanging curveball from Arakawa, who gave up just his third earned run in 18 innings.
John Williams added a two-run single in the second inning to score Izaak Silva and Mason Novak, who reached on a fielding error by Eric Ramirez at first.
Arakawa looked headed for trouble before he started a 1-6-3 double play to end the second, but that was almost it for him.
"I walked up to him and said, ‘We’re good?’ and in my mind, it was a rhetorical question because normally when he’s feeling that bad he’s going to say, ‘Yeah, I can’t do this anymore.’ He said he wanted to stay in and I’m committed to that kid’s heart and he’s not going to tell me that if it’s a situation where he doesn’t think he can make some outs."
He gave up six hits in 5 1⁄3 innings with two walks and three strikeouts and Quintin Torres-Costa sealed the deal, giving up no runs in 3 2⁄3 innings.
Torres-Costa allowed one hit and one walk with six strikeouts and hasn’t given up a run in his last four outings with 13 strikeouts in 7 2⁄3 innings.
BIG WEST STANDINGS |
|
Conference |
Overall |
|
W |
L |
Pct. |
GB |
W |
L |
UC Irvine |
6 |
0 |
1.000 |
— |
18 |
10 |
Long Beach St. |
4 |
2 |
.667 |
2 |
17 |
10 |
CS Fullerton |
4 |
2 |
.667 |
2 |
16 |
14 |
UC Santa Barbara |
2 |
1 |
.667 |
21/2 |
23 |
7 |
Hawaii |
3 |
3 |
.500 |
3 |
12 |
19 |
UC Davis |
3 |
3 |
.500 |
3 |
18 |
10* |
Cal Poly |
1 |
2 |
.333 |
31/2 |
10 |
8 |
CSUN |
1 |
5 |
.167 |
5 |
20 |
11 |
UC Riverside |
0 |
6 |
.000 |
6 |
10 |
22 |
*includes one tie for overall record |
Saturday
Hawaii 8, UC Davis 4
Cal State Fullerton 13, Cal Poly 2
UC Irvine 11, UC Riverside 9
Long Beach State 8, CSUN 1
UC Santa Barbara 9, Fresno State 3
Sunday
UC Davis at Hawaii, 1:05 p.m.
(non-conference)
HAWAII 8, UC DAVIS 4 |
Uc Davis |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
Hawaii |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
Bily rf |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Ventimilia 2b |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Lipson 2b |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Baldwin rf |
5 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
Lynch 1b |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Aliviado cf |
4 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
March lf |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Sawelson dh |
3 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
Silva c |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
Doi lf |
3 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Novak dh |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
LoCoco rf |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Aguiar 3b |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Ramirez 1b |
4 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
Williams cf |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
Kitaoka 3b |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Pluschkell ss |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Ka’aua c |
4 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
Shln.-Clns. ss |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
Totals |
31 |
4 |
7 |
4 |
Totals |
35 |
8 |
13 |
6 |
UC Davis (18-10-1, 3-3) |
120 |
001 |
000 |
– |
4 |
7 |
1 |
HAWAII (12-19, 3-3) |
033 |
000 |
11x |
— |
8 |
13 |
2 |
E–Pluschkell, Ramirez, Kitaoka. DP–UC Davis 1, Hawaii 2. LOB–UC Davis 5, Hawaii 7. 2B–Bily, Silva, Aliviado, Ramirez, Ka’aua, Sheldon-Collins. 3B–Baldwin.
SH–Novak, Aguiar, Sawelson. SF–Aliviado, Kitaoka. SB–Novak, March. HBP–Aliviado.
UC DAVIS |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
Jacobson (L, 3-1) |
5 1/3 |
9 |
6 |
6 |
2 |
3 |
Peters |
1 1/3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Stone |
1 1/3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
HAWAII |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
Arakawa (W, 2-0) |
51/3 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
Torres-Costa (S,1) |
32/3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
WP–Jacobson 2, Stone. BK–Arakawa. HBP–by Jacobson (Aliviado).
Umpires–(Plate): Rich Padilla. (First): Scott Letendre. (Third): Kevin Daugherty. T–2:48. A–2,390