’Bows sweep Aggies, jump to No. 1 in Big West

The Big West Conference has an unfamiliar name at the top of its baseball standings.

Hawaii held UC Davis to one earned run over the final 26 innings of a three-game series that ended in a doubleheader sweep by the Rainbow Warriors at Dobbins Stadium in Davis, Calif.

Kyle Von Ruden recorded Hawaii’s first nine-inning shutout in nearly two years in a 5-0 victory in the opener and Marcus Doi drove in a career-high four runs in a 7-2 win in the second game to complete the series sweep Sunday.

The Rainbow Warriors (16-15, 5-1) moved over .500 for the first time this late into a season since joining the Big West and are in sole possession of first place in the conference.

UH has won 10 of its past 13 games and extended its road winning streak in the BWC to nine games dating back to last season.

“It was a full-phase series for us and when you’re doing it on the road, that makes it even more impressive,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “I was really impressed overall with the way we played. I don’t want to say our pitching overshadowed our offense, because boy we really swung the bats well and got clutch hits, but if going into a doubleheader someone tells you you’re only going to need two (innings) from your ‘pen, you take it.”

The Aggies (8-18, 1-5) had scored 28 runs in their previous two games entering the series and took a 5-0 lead in Friday’s opener after two innings.

UC Davis didn’t score in the next 22 innings and plated its only earned run from that point on with one out in the ninth inning of the finale trailing by six runs.

Von Ruden (5-1) won his fourth straight start and earned his second complete game in a span of 15 days.

The nine-inning shutout was the first by a UH pitcher since Scott Kuzminsky struck out 14 in a win over New York Institute of Technology in May 2014.

Von Ruden allowed three hits with one walk and three strikeouts and went at least seven innings for his seventh consecutive outing.

“The two-seamer was so good. We really rode that for of the day,” Trapasso said. “(UC Davis) was very aggressive early in the counts and really hunts the fastball and we got a lot of ground balls and made some very nice plays.”

Eric Ramirez’s two-out single in the third inning put UH ahead 2-0 and he drove in two more runs with a base hit in the eighth inning to double UH’s lead.

Matt LoCoco singled and scored twice and Ethan Lopez added a pinch-hit single and scored an insurance run in the ninth inning for the final margin.

Hawaii, which scored first in all three games, put up four runs in the third inning in the second game off UC Davis starter Nat Hamby (1-1).

Shortstop Jacob Sheldon-Collins, who finished 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI to raise his batting average to .412, singled home the second run in the inning. Doi followed with a two-run double and drove in two more runs with a single in the seventh inning that made it 6-1.

Left-hander Alex Hatch, who failed to record an out and gave up six runs in a loss to UC Irvine last week, bounced back with seven quality innings.

Hatch (3-3) gave up one unearned run on four hits in seven innings with two walks and five strikeouts and threw a season-high 102 pitches.

“That was a character start right there,” Trapasso said. “His bullpen at practice on Thursday, you saw he had a chip on his shoulder and he just attacked the zone from the get-go. Those first couple of innings he was electric.”

Hawaii finished with 18 hits in the finale and 40 total in the three-game series.

UH has scored at least four runs in all six Big West games. Prior to conference play, UH had been held to three runs or fewer in nine of 25 games.

Doi, Kekai Rios, Chayce Ka‘aua and Alex Fitchett all had two hits in the second game.

LoCoco went 0-for-4 to snap a nine-game hitting streak and was the only starter without a hit.

“Just really a team effort and in both games we were able to put up a crooked number early, which is what we always talk about,” Trapasso said. “It settles your pitcher down and then as the game progressed we were able to expand on that lead. We made a couple of errors but played really good defense.”

Hawaii, which is 6-2 away from Les Murakami Stadium, returns home for a three-game series against Cal Poly, starting Friday. UH then hits the road for its next seven games.

BIG WEST BASEBALL

Saturday

*College of Charleston 10, UCSB 3

Cal Poly 1, CS Fullerton 0, 10 inn.

UC Irvine 2, UC Riverside 1

*-nonconference

Sunday

Hawaii 5, UC Davis 0

Hawaii 7, UC Davis 2

Long Beach St. 6, CSUN 3

Long Beach St. 12, CSUN 0

Cal Poly 6, CS Fullerton 3

UC Irvine 8, UC Riverside 3

*UCSB 6, College of Charleston 6 (travel curfew)

*-nonconference

Today

Long Beach St. at CSUN

Tuesday

*California at Cal Poly

*UC Irvine at CSU Bakersfield

*-nonconference

HAWAII 5, UC DAVIS 0

GAME 1

E—Rojas. DP—UC Davis 1. LOB—Hawaii 7, UC Davis 3. HBP—LoCoco 2. SH—Weeks, Sheldon-Collins, Fitchett. SB—LoCoco, Thomas. CS—Henderson.

WP—Brown, Steindorf. HBP—by Brown (LoCoco), by Steindorf (LoCoco). PB—Denholm.

Umpires—(Plate): Tom Chandler. (First): Josh Gottlieb. (Third): Gary Di Fabio. T—2:12.

HAWAII 7, UC DAVIS 2

GAME 2

E—Sheldon-Collins, Allen. DP—Hawaii 2, UC Davis 2. LOB—Hawaii 8, UC Davis 7. 2B—Doi, Cardinalli. SH—LoCoco, Ramirez, Allen. SB—Doi, Fitchett, Rojas, Langer.

Umpires—(Plate): Josh Gottlieb. (First): Gary Di Fabio. (Third): Tom Chandler. T—2:39.