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The Hawaii baseball team weathered intermittent rain and early struggles for Thursday’s 6-4 victory over Oregon at Les Murakami Stadium.
Before 928, the Rainbow Warriors surged from a three-run deficit to win the opener of this four-game series. The ’Bows improved to 9-5. The Ducks fell to 7-4 as their seven-game winning streak ended.
“We’ve lost a couple of games we should have won, and maybe tonight we won a game we should have lost,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said. “We weren’t really there from a focus standpoint early on.”
The ’Bows were able to rally in support of starting pitcher Logan Pouelsen, who struggled with his command and a seemingly narrow strike zone. Pouelsen was rocked for three runs in three innings, departing after throwing strikes on only half of his 48 pitches.
Oregon starting pitcher Cullen Kafka overcame his own wildness — five walks in five innings — before departing with a 4-1 lead after his pitch count reached 97.
Kafka turned the game over to a vastly improved bullpen. Last season, the Ducks’ relievers had a combined earned-run average of nearly 7.00. In the first 11 games this season, the relievers were a combined 2.14.
But the middle relievers could not provide relief. The ’Bows scored five runs in the sixth to seize a 6-4 lead.
Adam Fogel opened the UH sixth with a four-pitch walk off Keaton Chase. Alex Baeza then pulled a single to right as Fogel sprinted to third. Tyler Best then beat out a grounder to short, bringing home Fogel to close the ’Bows to 4-2. The ’Bows then chased Chase after the right-hander plunked Matt Wong to load the bases.
Pinch hitter Ryder Kuhns grounded to third baseman Josh Kasevich, who threw out Baeza at the plate. Dallas Duarte entered as a pinch runner for Kuhns. After Stone Miiyao popped up to second, Scotty Scott drew an RBI walk to cut the ’Bows’ deficit to 4-3.
That brought up shortstop Kole Kaler, who entered batting .455 in two-out situations. This time, Kaler smacked a pitch from Nico Tellache into center field to score Wong and Duarte and put the ’Bows ahead, 5-4.
“It was a heater,” Kaler said. “I got a pitch over the middle for the go-ahead hit. It was good.”
Kaler then took off on a steal attempt. When he realized he would be thrown out, he stopped, inducing a rundown. Kaler stayed in it long enough for Scott to race home and beat first baseman Gabe Matthews’ throw to the plate with UH’s sixth run.
“I stayed in there as long as I could to give Scotty a chance to score,” Kaler said. “That was huge. It put us up by two. That was good.”
Scott said: “It wasn’t a designed play. Kole trying to steal was a designed steal. Kole did a great job realizing we had a chance to score a run, and he made something cool happen. I saw the first baseman drop his head, and I went home.”
The ’Bows had squandered opportunities in the first five innings. In the first, Kaler double and Dustin Demeter walked. Both runners advanced a base on Fogel’s groundout. But Baeza hit an inning-ending groundout.
In the third, Miyao reached second on shortstop Gavin Grant’s throwing error and advanced to third on a groundout. But then Kaler hit a liner that Kasevich snagged and then stepped on third for an unassisted double play.
The ’Bows managed to score their first run in the fourth when Demeter walked, went to second on a passed ball, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Grant’s second error of the game.
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