The Hawaii baseball team lost a game — 3-1 to Fresno State — and maybe another pitcher on Sunday in Fresno, Calif.
The Rainbow Warriors could not complete a series sweep when they managed four hits against three pitchers and left the bases loaded in a failed ninth-inning comeback at Bennett Stadium.
“It’s disappointing, but when you hold Fresno State to three runs in this ballpark, you feel like you have a good chance to win,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said in a telephone interview.
The ’Bows won on Friday and Saturday but dropped the finale between former Western Athletic Conference members. The ’Bows, who belong to the Big West, are 25-20. They will ensure their second consecutive winning regular season if they win one of the final six games. But they probably will have to do it without freshman right-hander Cade Smith, who suffered an apparent injury to an oblique muscle while warming up at the start of the third inning.
“We’ll have to see what Cade’s situation is,” Trapasso said. “It looks like he’s done for the year if it is a strained oblique muscle. Sometimes those things take six to eight weeks to heal. Depending on the severity of it, it’s at least a couple weeks, and we only have two weeks left.”
Starting pitchers Neil Uskali and Dominic DeMiero have not pitched in two weeks because of arm issues. Logan Pouelsen pitched on Sunday for the first time in two weeks after recovering from arm tenderness.
Kash Koltermann, who replaced Smith, allowed one run in five innings. Pouelsen pitched a scoreless eighth.
“We pitched pretty well with a depleted staff,” Trapasso said. “We threw a lot more strikes than we had been the past couple weeks.”
The ’Bows had thrown strikes on 64.3 percent of their pitches this weekend.
But the ’Bows had difficulty solving Fresno State’s Nikoh Mitchell, a left-handed freshman. Mitchell pitched seven shutout innings, allowing two hits and walking one while striking out seven. Mitchell threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 24 batters he faced.
“It was one of those games where you tip your cap to their freshman,” Trapasso said. “He pitched extremely well. He was sharp. He was throwing strikes. He was ahead in the count. We hit the ball hard, but right at guys. For the most part, we didn’t have an answer for him. He was really good.”
Davis Moore did not allow a run in the eighth. But Ryan Jensen gave up a two-out RBI single to Ethan Lopez in the ninth. The ’Bows filled the bases, but Jensen struck out Chayce Ka‘aua to end the game.
Fresno State second baseman Jeremiah Burks went 2-for-3, scored two runs and drove home another. For the series, Burks was 7-for-11.
“Burks may be as good a hitter as we’ve faced all year,” Trapasso said. “We threw the kitchen sink at him, and he continued to hit the ball. He hit fastball, curveball, changeup, inside, outside, up, down. We tried everything. Probably the best thing we did was walk him intentionally (in the fourth inning).”
After the game, the ’Bows traveled to San Jose, where they stayed overnight. They are scheduled to return to Honolulu today ahead of this weekend’s final homestand of the season vs. Long Beach State. Trapasso said they will resume practicing on Wednesday.
