Hawaii denies San Jose State rally

The University of Hawaii relied on big innings to conquer San Jose State’s small-ball tactics for an 8-7 baseball victory at Les Murakami Stadium.

A Friday-night crowd of 1,680 saw the Rainbow Warriors cobble together three runs in the first and four in the fourth to overcome deficits, and then throw out the potential tying run at the plate for the final out.

The ’Bows won the first two of this four-game, nonconference series. The teams meet tonight at 6:35.

All but one UH batter had at least one hit, led by left fielder Adam Fogel’s 3-for-3 performance. Fogel is 7-for-8 in this series. Johnny Weeks, Kekai Rios, Ethan Lopez and Dustin Demeter each had two hits. The ’Bows amassed 14 hits and were struck four times with pitches.

The ’Bows led 8-7 when Corey Olivet reached on a two-out single. David Campbell then hit a drive to left field. Dylan Vchulek picked up the ball, then threw to first baseman Eric Ramirez. Ramirez threw to Rios, who tagged out Olivet attempting to score from first.

Colin Ashworth, who replaced Neil Uskali with one out in the fourth, pitched 31⁄3 innings for his first UH victory. Ashworth allowed two hits and two runs but only one earned.

Uskali, who struggled against the Spartans’ slap-and-bunt attack, surrendered seven hits in 31⁄3 innings, his shortest start of the season. Sacrifices set up three SJSU runs. A potential Spartans run was nullified when a baserunner was ruled to have left third too early on a deep flyout to right field.

Matt Richardson pitched the final 21⁄3 innings for his first save. Richardson entered with two baserunners in the seventh but induced an inning-ending groundout.

The Spartans, who entered averaging 4.7 pitching changes per game, brought 14 hurlers on this trip. They used five on Friday, including three in the fourth inning, when nine ’Bows batted. The Spartans could not hold 2-0 and 5-3 leads.

In the bottom of the first, Weeks and Rios had back-to-back, one-out singles, then scored when Josh Rojas pulled a triple to right center. Rojas scored on Fogel’s sacrifice for a 3-2 lead.

The Spartans regained the lead, at 4-3, on Kyle Morrison’s RBI double and Aaron Pleschner’s run-scoring single in the fourth. They extended the lead to 5-3 when Joseph Sefanki tripled and came home on Kyle Blakeman’s grounder to deep short.

But the ’Bows answered — loudly — with a four-run sixth. The ’Bows closed to 5-4 when Lopez and Demeter smacked consecutive doubles. Demeter, who dropped from second to ninth in the order, made solid contact on each of his four at-bats.

Dylan Vchulek then reached on an infield hit when Pleschner, who charged from deep short, could not scoop the ball cleanly. Demeter advanced to third on Weeks’ flyout to right, then scored when Rios blooped a 2-2 pitch into right field. Rojas was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Fogel then singled through the middle to score Vchulek and Rios for a 7-5 lead.

The ’Bows added a run in the fifth when Lopez doubled and then scored on Weeks’ second single of the game.

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