No. 19 Michigan overcame a furious Hawaii rally in the bottom of the ninth to win a disputed 5-4 game in 10 innings on Friday night.
A crowd of 1,347 witnessed one of the crazier games at Les Murakami Stadium, which saw Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso ejected in the top of the ninth inning.
Hawaii (6-9) trailed 4-1 with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth and had only two hits against the Wolverines (9-3), who set a UH opponent single-game record with 20 strikeouts.
Five straight Rainbow Warriors reached base off Michigan reliever Bryan Pall, who struck out six in two innings.
Johnny Weeks reached on an infield single and Alex Sawelson was UH’s 18th strikeout victim of the game, breaking the previous record of 17.
The ball got away from catcher Drew Lugbauer, allowing Sawelson to take first on a wild pitch and keep the game going.
After Marcus Doi worked a walk to load the bases, catcher Kekai Rios reached on an infield single up the middle to score Weeks.
Freshman Ethan Lopez, making his first career start at second base, ripped a two-run single to right to tie the game at 4.
Rios took third on the play and then took off for home on a pitch to Matt LoCoco that bounced away from Lugbauer.
Pall covered the plate and plate umpire Jake Uhlenhopp ruled Rios out to send the game into extra innings.
“The umpires control what’s going on and we’ve just got to live with it,” said Rios, who was 1-for-3 with a walk. “I feel like I was clearly safe, but things happen and that’s baseball.”
Trapasso was tossed in the top of the inning after Lugbauer was called safe on Ako Thomas’ bunt to first.
Eric Ramirez came home with the throw and Rios thought he got the tag down, but Uhlenhopp ruled in Michigan’s favor.
The run proved to make a difference.
“I thought it was close enough to go argue,” Trapasso said. “Our guys stuck with it and got fired up that last inning and got some really clutch hits. We stayed in it the whole game and made some mistakes defensively in that 10th inning, but that’s the fight we’re used to seeing out of these guys.”
Harrison Wenson delivered the go-ahead single in the 10th inning to drive in Matt Ramsay and put Michigan back in front.
A check-swing call that went in Michigan’s favor drew the ire of the Hawaii dugout again and second baseman Josh Rojas was thrown out of the game.
Per NCAA rule, Rojas has to sit out the first game of today’s doubleheader that starts at 12:05 p.m. Due to Michigan’s travel plans, the second game will be called at 6 p.m.
Trapasso said outfielder Marcus Doi, who made his first start in nine games recovering from an ankle injury, reinjured himself and is out indefinitely.
“We need to continue the fight we showed moving forward,” Trapasso said. “I think we’ve got some fun games ahead of us. That’s for sure.”
Michigan ace Brett Adcock, who was sitting 92-93 MPH to start, struck out a career-high 12 in seven innings.
Lopez, who made his first start of the season at second in place of Rojas, roped a two-out double in the third inning for UH’s first hit.
He ended up scoring, as Adcock uncorked back-to-back wild pitches to tie the game at 1-1.
Michigan took the early lead on Johnny Slater’s two-out RBI double in the second inning. It was the first two-out hit of the season for Slater, who struck out three times on Thursday.
Hawaii left two on in the fifth inning and Michigan took the lead in the sixth when Carmen Benedetti singled home Jake Bivens with one out.
Both hits came off first-pitch swings against Hawaii starter Kyle Von Ruden, who had gone at least eight innings in each of his last two outings.
Von Ruden allowed three runs on eight hits in 7 2/3 innings with two walks and five strikeouts.
MICHIGAN 5, HAWAII 4, 10 INN.
WOLVERINES |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
Bivens 3b |
5 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Ramsay lf |
5 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Benedetti 1b |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Wenson dh/c |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Bruder cf |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Lugbauer c |
5 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Slater rf |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Brdar ss |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Thomas 2b |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
TOTALS |
37 |
5 |
11 |
5 |
2 |
6 |
|
RAINBOW WARRIORS |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
LoCoco cf |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
Sheldon-Collins ss |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Ramirez 1b |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Fitchett rf |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
Weeks 3b |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Sawelson dh |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Candaroma pr |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Doi lf |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
Baldwin pr/lf |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Rios c |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Lopez 2b |
4 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
TOTALS |
34 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
20 |
Michigan (9-3) |
010 |
002 |
001 |
1 |
— |
5 |
11 |
1 |
Hawaii (6-9) |
001 |
000 |
003 |
0 |
— |
4 |
5 |
4 |
E–Brdar; Fitchett; Weeks; Lopez 2. DP–Hawaii 3. LOB–Michigan 7, Hawaii 5.
2B–Bivens; Slater; Lopez. HBP–Bruder. SH–Slater; Thomas; Sawelson. CS–Thomas; LoCoco; Rios.
MICHIGAN |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
Adcock |
7 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
12 |
Pall (W, 1-0) |
2 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
6 |
Lehmann (S, 1) |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Hawaii |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
Von Ruden |
7 2/3 |
8 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
Culp (L, 0-1) |
2 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Valencia |
1/3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
WP-Adcock 2; Pall. HBP–by Von Ruden (Bruder). Umpires–(Plate): Jake Uhlenhopp. (First): Frank Pflugradt. (Third): Jason Rogers. T–3:09. A–1,347