Rainbows rally, only to fall for the third time to Indiana

For the University of Hawaii baseball team, heartbreak comes in threes.

For the third night in a row, the Rainbow Warriors played well but not well enough, this time in an 11-inning, 8-5 loss to Indiana before 1,675 fans at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Hoosiers won the first three games of this four-game, nonconference series. The series finale begins at 1:05 p.m. today.

The ’Bows had rallied from a four-run deficit to close to 5-3 in the sixth and then tie it at 5 in the bottom of the ninth.

But in the top of the 11th, Indiana outfielder Craig Dedelow hammered a Brody Hagel-Pitt pitch over the wall in right-center for a 6-5 lead. It was the team-leading fifth homer for Dedelow, who was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates last summer. Dedelow decided a Pirate’s life was not for him, opting to return to Indiana for his senior season.

Later in the 11th, the Hoosiers added insurance runs on Austin Cangelosi’s two-run double down the right-field line. Cangelosi’s father, John, played 13 seasons in the major leagues.

After cutting a four-run deficit to 5-3, the ’Bows stranded runners in scoring position in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

But the ’Bows scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie it at 5.

Johnny Weeks hit a lead-off single to left. One out later, left-hitting Logan Pouelsen, who did not play in the first three games of the series, batted in place of Alex Fitchett against right-handed reliever Matt Lloyd. Pouelsen then rocketed a double to right center, sending Weeks to third.

Dylan Vchulek drove a 1-0 pitch to center, scoring Weeks and Eric Lopez, who was pinch-running for Pouelsen. Vchulek went to second on the throw to the plate, but then was doubled off when shortstop Colby Stratten caught Dustin Demeter’s liner.

The ’Bows had tied the score at 1 when Josh Rojas and Weeks hit back-to-back doubles with two outs in the second. And then Brian Hobbie, a converted right-handed reliever, silenced the ’Bows for the next four innings as the Hoosiers built a 5-1 lead.

But with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, catcher Kekai Rios blistered a grounder past third baseman Luke Miller for a single. Then first baseman Eric Ramirez, who recently conquered leg issues, powered a two-run homer over the wall in right-center field. Before that drive, Ramirez had not had an extra-base hit or RBI this season. Ramirez had missed eight games in a row before entering as a pinch hitter on Thursday night.

The ’Bows escaped a threat in the seventh when Vchulek made a sprinting catch at the threshold of the warning track in center field. Soon after, left-fielder Adam Fogel fielded a single and threw out Indiana’s Logan Sowers at the plate.

The Hoosiers relied on speed and timely hitting to take a 3-1 lead in the third. Alex Krupa, who can run 60 yards in 6.5 seconds and go from home to first in 3.6 seconds, showed that speed with a leadoff triple. Krupa scored on Matt Gorski’s single to left. Gorski then advanced to second on a groundout, stole third and scored on Ryan Fineman’s single to center.

The Hoosiers added two runs in the fifth to make it 5-1.

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