The Hawaii baseball team scrambled what appeared to be a sunny-side-up projection in Sunday’s 6-3 loss to UC Santa Barbara at Les Murakami Stadium.
A crowd of 1,754 saw the sixth-ranked Gauchos tie it at 3 with a two-run single in the ninth inning and then score three in the 11th to spoil the final home game for five UH seniors. The Rainbow Warriors end the regular season with three road games against Long Beach State this week.
Following the subdued postgame introduction of the departing ’Bows, head coach Mike Trapasso stood at the top step of the dugout in anguished silence.
“I’ve got nothing to say,” said Trapasso, whose ’Bows fell to 20-27 overall and 8-13 in the Big West. “The guys played well. We just didn’t get it done. I don’t have anything else to say. When’s that ever happened?”
The Gauchos won the first two of this three-game series by a combined 19-3. They entered with 64 home runs in 50 games and a slugging percentage of .518. But through the first eight innings, Logan Pouelsen and Dylan Thomas held the Gauchos to five singles.
But with UH leading 3-1 in the ninth, Tommy Jew hit a blooper that fell in front of center fielder Scotty Scott for a one-out single. After Thomas struck out Marcos Castanon for the second out, Tevin Mitchell walked on a 3-2 pitch. With right-swinging Cole Mueller at the plate, Jew stole third on a called strike.
Jew’s steal was the combination of catcher Tyler Murray making sure to frame the pitch in the strike zone and a makeshift defense in which there was inexperience in holding a runner at second. Ethan Lopez had moved from third to short in place of Maaki Yamazaki, who could not field because of a sore right (throwing) shoulder.
“I didn’t have a handle,” said Murray, who opted not to throw to third. “I didn’t want to throw it into left field. I wanted to be smart.”
Soon after, Mitchell stole second, also without a throw, to place the tying run in scoring position. Mueller then hit a 2-2 slider up the middle to drive in Jew and Mueller and tie it at 3.
“It was a good (slider), too,” Thomas said. “I felt it off the hand. I felt I got it down, and I think I did. He put a good barrel on it. Those are some of the best hitters we’ve faced this year and probably what a lot of our guys will face in their careers. That team is definitely something different. They’re going to make a run at it (in the postseason).”
The Gauchos loaded the bases in the 11th against Colin Ashworth, UH’s third pitcher. Jeremy Wu-Yelland replaced Ashworth, and gave up a sacrifice fly to Castanon to give the Gauchos a 4-3 lead. Michael McAdoo’s two-run single provided cushion.
UH’s Dallas Duarte and Yamazaki were overshadowed in the loss. Duarte’s solo homer in the second extended UH’s lead to 2-0.
“I’m going to be real with you, I never hit a home run over the fence before,” Duarte said of his drive over the wall in left field. “It felt good. It felt really good. He gave me a fastball about belt high, and I just turned on it.”
In the eighth, Yamazaki, who started at designated hitter, hit a drive down the right-field line for his third homer of the season. The homer was confirmed after the umpires reviewed video.
“Honestly, I couldn’t even see,” Yamazaki said of the ball’s final destination. “It got lost in the clouds. I hoped it was fair, that it stayed fair.”
Yamazaki’s shoulder ailment allows him to bat but not throw. Yamazaki said he is awaiting the result of an MRI he underwent on Saturday.
“Hopefully, I’m going to be fine,” Yamazaki said.
This was the final home game for Yamazaki, Lopez, Ashworth, Dominic DeMiero and Kash Koltermann. It also appears that Thomas has played his final NCAA game at Les Murakami Stadium. Thomas, who turned down an offer from the Minnesota Twins to return to UH for his junior season, is projected to be picked in the first 10 rounds of next month’s Major League Baseball Draft for First-Year Players. “You never know with that kind of stuff,” Thomas said. “But at the end of the day, it turns out the way it turns out. I’ve definitely cherished the years I’ve been here.”
