Riding the energy of “Bowmentum,” the Hawaii baseball team surged to Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Cal State Fullerton at Les Murakami Stadium.
By beating the Big West defending champions for the second day in a row, the Rainbow Warriors won a three-game series between the teams for the second time in UH’s seven years of conference membership. A matinee crowd of 1,158 saw the ’Bows improve to 16-20 overall and 6-6 in the Big West.
“The word of the day is ‘Bowmentum,’ ” said Dylan Thomas, who retired all 12 batters he faced in four scoreless innings to earn the victory.
“Niji nagare — rainbow and momentum,” said shortstop Maaki Yamazaki, whose solo blast broke a 1-all tie in the sixth inning.
The ’Bows found success with aggressive pitching, timely hitting and stylish fielding. A day after blasting the pinch-hit, walk-off homer, Logan Pouelsen started for UH, allowing four hits and a run in five innings. In the fourth, he recovered a ball hit back to the mound, then fired to catcher Tyler Murray to nab Jairus Richards inches from the plate.
“It’s a pretty athletic move to throw on a comebacker off of you,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said. “When you scramble and try to throw it home, you usually throw it to the backstop. But that was big. It shifted the momentum to our side even though (the Titans) opened the game with a run.”
In the fifth, the ’Bows tied it at 1 on Murray’s RBI double, on which he appeared to aggravate his left hamstring while jog-hobbling to second.
In the sixth, Yamazaki pulled a 1-2 fastball over the Island Movers sign in right field for his first homer of the season. Yamazaki had followed advice from teammate Dustin Demeter on simplifying his swing. “I was moving too much twisting my body,” Yamazaki said. “It was two strikes, I tried to stay as short as I can (with the swing). Fastball inside came, and I just reacted.”
The ’Bows added an insurance run in the seventh. After Daylen Calicdan opened with a triple, the Titans decided to pull starter Michael Knorr. While Dillon Brown warmed up, Dallas Duarte gave a go-for-it look to Calicdan. Trapasso flashed the signal, and Duarte placed a bunt to the right of the mound, as Calicdan raced in for the UH’s third run.
“He gave me a fastball down the middle, and all I had to do was put it down,” Duarte said.
Calicdan said: “I saw the look. … (Duarte) knew what he needed to do, and he executed well. I did my job and he did the hard part.”
