The Hawaii baseball team’s night was Oregon’s nightmare in Friday’s 13-5 rout at Les Murakami Stadium.
A crowd of 1,284 witnessed the Rainbow Warriors amass 15 hits, draw six walks, get beaned twice and take advantage of three errors in their biggest output of the season.
The ’Bows have won the first two of this four-game series.
Hawaii pieced together its most productive — and longest — half-inning in a six-run second.
The ’Bows also managed to make back the two runs deducted when Scotty Scott’s apparent grand slam was downgraded to a two-run double in a four-run sixth inning.
That was more than enough support for right-hander Aaron Davenport, who improved to 4-0 in his fourth start of the season. Davenport allowed five hits and surrendered two runs while striking out nine in seven innings.
“I feel good,” Davenport said. “I’m pitching as I was hoping and expecting to pitch this year. I’m going to keep pounding the zone and attacking hitters.”
It was a difficult outing for Davenport’s counterpart, Oregon’s Robert Ahlstrom, who entered with a 2.89 earned-run average.
Ahlstrom threw 50 pitches and absorbed six runs — all earned — in UH’s second inning, which lasted 28 minutes. By the time Ahlstrom exited in the middle of the ’Bows’ four-run fourth, he was credited with giving up 10 earned runs, nine hits and three walks. He also was assessed one-ball penalties three times for exceeding the 20-second limit for throwing a pitch.
The ’Bows’ 1-2 hitters — right fielder Scott and shortstop Kole Kaler — provided a jab-jab attack. Scott went 3-for-5, scored two runs and drove in three. Kaler had two hits and added three RBIs.
UH designated hitter Adam Fogel had his best outing this season after missing all but 10 games in 2019 while recovering from a shoulder injury. Fogel, who entered batting .163, had three hits in his first three at-bats, including a double. His first extra-base hit of the season helped set up the ’Bows’ fifth-inning run to extend their lead to 7-2.
“It always feels good to launch a couple hits,” Fogel said.
UH coach Mike Trapasso said: “It was a really good offensive game for us, probably our best offensive game of the year.”
The ’Bows then added four runs in a sixth inning that featured some controversy. After the ’Bows loaded the bases with no outs against Ahlstrom, right-handed Keaton Chase was summoned to pitch to the left-swinging Scott.
On Thursday, Chase did not retire any of the four UH batters he faced. On Friday, Scott drove Chase’s 2-2 pitch to the top of the wall in right. The umpires initially ruled it was a grand slam. But after several discussions, it was decided that — oops! — the ball might not have cleared the wall. The home run was changed to a ground-rule double, enabling Tyler Best and Matt Wong to score while Matt Campos had to go to third and Scott to second.
But the ’Bows got back those two runs. Kole Kaler doubled to right-center to bring home Campos and, after Dustin Demeter walked to reload the bases, Dallas Duarte drew an RBI walk to bring home Scott.
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Scott said of the homer reversal. “I think the officiating has a different opinion than I do. But at the end of the day, if that’s not a double, then Kole Kaler doesn’t get RBIs the next at-bat. I still ended up scoring. I stepped on the plate twice and it only counted once.”
The ’Bows opened the scoring when Campos was plunked with the bases loaded in the second inning. Scott followed with an RBI single, and Kaler followed with a two-run drive into right-center.
The ’Bows improved to 10-5. The Ducks, who entered the series on a seven-game winning streak, fell to 7-6.
The teams meet today in the third game of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Brandon Ross will make his third start for the ’Bows.