Hawaii sluggers pound Chicago State

Patrick Martin and three relievers combined on a two-hit shutout and Hawaii won the final game of a home series for the first time this season with a 14-0 victory over Chicago State on Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium.

The 688 in the stands who chose baseball over watching Hawaii’s NCAA Tournament basketball game on TV were treated to a complete effort from the baseball ‘Bows.

UH (9-12) pounded out 16 hits and scored a season-high in runs while holding Chicago State (5-13) scoreless for the second time in three games.

Marcus Doi had a career-high four hits and three RBIs to help Hawaii secure its first three-game winning streak of the season.

“I really liked our approach today,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “Coming out today and putting up three right away was big because we knew some down-staff guys were going to have to pitch.”

Hawaii had really struggled in the fourth game of series, losing by a combined score of 21-6 to New Mexico, West Virginia and Michigan.

Martin, who walked eight and gave up five hits in his first-ever appearance at home, held the Cougars to one hit over five innings.

Martin (1-1), a sophomore, walked one and struck out one and has thrown seven consecutive shutout innings since that outing against New Mexico State that came in an 18-0 loss.

“It meant a lot to build some confidence,” the 6-foot-3 left-hander from Arlington Heights, Ill., said. “The first couple of weeks of the season I didn’t know what I was doing out there and then after Michigan I built some confidence and then did it again out here today.”

Three relievers, including right-hander Josh Pigg, finished off the shutout for Hawaii. Pigg, who started the year as Hawaii’s No. 3 starter, finally found some success, striking out the side in an impressive eighth inning.

The 6-foot-2 right-hander was drafted in the 28th round out of high school and has the ability to throw in the low 90s, but hasn’t had any success in a UH uniform up until this point.

“That could be the biggest thing from the day,” Trapasso said. “He’s going to go home from the ballpark for the first time in a long time feeling good about himself.”

Hawaii allowed only two runs the entire series against the Cougars, who hit .176 against UH. Chicago State still managed to escape the series with one win, taking the opener on Thursday 1-0.

“We’re in one of those hitting funks right now that every team goes through,” Chicago State coach Steve Joslyn said. “I think that (Hawaii) was in that a little bit against Michigan and maybe the first game or two against us but then you break out and all of a sudden you look up at they have 16 hits and it’s kind of contagious.”

UH pushed across three runs in the first inning with Eric Ramirez collecting an RBI single and Doi continuing his tear.

Doi, who had three hits in Saturday’s win, went 4-for-5 with a stolen base and scored twice to raise his average to .341.

“The confidence carried over today and I stuck with my approach and got good results out of it,” Doi said.

Hawaii had a 3-0 lead and left the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

It responded with a four-spot in the seventh inning and then tacked on seven more runs in the eighth to finish with its highest run total since a 15-8 win at Pepperdine in February 2015.

“We scored in three innings but we had chances to score in a few more innings,” said Ramirez, who was 2-for-5 with three runs and an RBI. “Some of us needed to be a little more aggressive in fastball counts. We’ve got to keep getting better.”

Hawaii’s middle of the order came up with 10 of the 16 hits.

Third baseman Johnny Weeks, hitting third for the second straight game, singled twice and drove in two runs and Alex Fitchett was 2-for-5.

Alex Sawelson added a two-run, pinch-hit single in the eighth inning and Kekai Rios, starting at catcher for the fourth day in a row, doubled and drove in three runs.

“I’ve prepared for this for the whole offseason and I love playing,” said Rios, who finally got a break when David Noworyta pinch-hit for him in the eighth inning. “After losing four games (against Michigan) we needed something to get us rolling and hopefully these three wins get us going.”

UH gets back to it on Thursday with a four-game series against Santa Clara before starting Big West Conference play at home against UC Irvine on April 1.

HAWAII 14, CHICAGO STATE 0

E—Weeks. LOB—Chicago State 3, Hawaii 11. 2B–Rios. SH—Russell. SB–Doi.

WP–Willis, Arteaga

Umpires—(Plate): Kevin Daugherty. (First): Ruben Candelaria. (Third): Bob Williams. T—2:22. A—688.