Scrambling University of Hawaii baseball team falls to CSUN

Ejection and dejection were elements in the Hawaii baseball team’s 6-3 loss to Cal State Northridge at Matador Field on the CSUN campus.

A Sunday crowd of 430 saw the Rainbow Warriors lose a key player and then a one-run lead in falling to 18-22 overall and 7-8 in the Big West. The Matadors are 19-23 and 6-9.

Scotty Scott’s RBI single in the sixth helped the ’Bows break a 2-all tie. But in the seventh, UH reliever Jeremy Wu-Yelland botched a grounder that became a single-plus-error play, and then issued a four-pitch walk. Calvin Turchin replaced Wu-Yelland, and walked Sean Skelly on four pitches to load the bases.

The Matadors then summoned left-swinging Blake Doremus to pinch hit against right-handed Turchin. Doremus hammered Turchin’s hanging fastball over the wall in left field for a grand slam. Both of Doremus’ hits this week were home runs.

“You point to the grand slam,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said of the run differential, “but you had the error and two walks before that.”

Wu-Yelland appeared to be fatigued after pitching on Friday and throwing 45 pitches to nine batters on Sunday. “He threw a four-pitch walk that wasn’t even close, and he was just out of gas,” Trapasso said of Wu-Yelland.

Turchin had pitched well in recent outings, including a scoreless inning of relief on Tuesday. “I thought the matchup was better,” Trapasso said of using Turchin, “and the matchup would have been better if Turchin could have come in and thrown a strike. But he goes four-pitch walk, so you’ve got two four-pitch walks and an error to load the bases, and then he hung a fastball. And that’s all she wrote.”

The ’Bows were forced to scramble after Ethan Lopez was thrown out at the plate in the fifth. Umpire Andrew Wolverton ejected Lopez based on a rule preventing running into the catcher. According to the rule, the ejection comes with a one-game suspension, meaning Lopez will not be allowed to play in Tuesday’s nonconference game against Cal Baptist.

“It’s the way college baseball is,” Trapasso said of the rule. “It’s a please-may-I game right now. … I can’t argue with the umpire because the rules are the rules. It’s pretty ridiculous. He dove head first and his shoulder went into the catcher, and that’s an ejection. And it’s the correct call. You’re not allowed to do it. It’s a stupid rule, but you’re not allowed to do it. I can’t fault the umpire for that. You’ve got a guy playing hard hard baseball, and he gets penalized for it.”

Lopez, who is the regular third baseman, was playing short because Maaki Yamazaki is experiencing shoulder discomfort. Second baseman Jack Kennelly had to move to short, left fielder Daylen Calicdan went from left field to second, and Jacob Sniffin replaced Calicdan in the outfield.

In the sixth, the ’Bows loaded the bases with two outs. But Sniffin, who was batting in Lopez’s spot, struck out.

“The kids really battled, and I’m proud of them,” Trapasso said. “We’re an absolute skeleton crew right now. Maaki can’t play because he can’t throw. And Lopez gets ejected. So there’s both of your shortstops out of the game. It was ridiculous. … We ended up having five guys playing out of position. We’re just thin. That’s no excuse. We still got 11 hits. We’ve got to get more runs out of those hits.”