Hawaii’s maturity in the starting lineup and a gritty debut for a freshman reliever powered the Rainbow Warriors to a historic 3-2 season-opening road win over No. 15 Arizona State on Friday in Phoenix.
In the first true season opener on the mainland in the program’s Division I history, the Rainbows — who returned most of their lineup after last season was cut short — rallied from a 2-0 deficit to earn UH’s first win over the Sun Devils since 1993 and its first road victory against ASU since 1987.
“I told our guys that was a win based on maturity and experience and poise and just staying in it and going about their business,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said in a postgame phone interview.
After Arizona State jumped on UH right-hander Aaron Davenport for a 2-0 lead after two innings, senior first baseman Alex Baeza ignited the Rainbow rally with a home run to lead off the fifth inning. Baeza scored the tying run on a wild pitch in the seventh and crossed the plate with the go-ahead run on second baseman Aaron Ujimori’s sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth.
Arizona State put two runners on with two out in the bottom of the ninth, but freshman left-hander Austin Teixeira got the last of his six outs to earn the win in his first collegiate appearance and secure UH’s first victory over the Sun Devils since Jan. 28, 1993, a 9-4 decision at home in that season’s opener.
The series concludes with a doubleheader today, with the first game scheduled for 11 a.m. and the finale set for 3:30 p.m. Sophomore right-hander Cade Halemanu is slated to start the first game, with the starter for the finale uncertain with Logan Pouelsen out of action this weekend.
“I’m proud of the guys, but at the same time based on that same maturity and experience we said, ‘That’s what we came here to do. That’s one of 51, we’ve got a long way to go. Let’s get a good night’s sleep and we’ve got 18 innings of baseball tomorrow,’” Trapasso said.
Davenport gave up four hits over the first two innings then settled in to shut down the Sun Devils (2-2) over his final five innings, limiting ASU to three hits over that stretch, and finished with seven strikeouts with one walk.
“He really didn’t have great command of the fastball today, but yet he really gutted it out with just finding three pitches to make them work and every ball they really squared up was elevated,” Trapasso said. “They really hunted elevation and when he stared getting the ball down and mixing he was really good his last two or three innings.
“It just goes to what we already know about Aaron (Davenport). He’s a quality Friday night guy in any league, gives you a chance to win and you really can’t say enough about his outing tonight.”
Arizona State jumped ahead on back-to-back doubles by Drew Swift and Sean McClain in the bottom of the first inning and added a run in the second on Joe Lampe’s RBI groundout to shortstop.
Baeza led off the top of the fifth by sending a pitch well beyond the right-field fence. He walked to lead off the seventh, advanced on Dallas Duarte’s bunt single and a fielder’s choice grounder, and scored on ASU reliever Graham Osman’s wild pitch to tie the game.
After Teixeira worked out of a jam in the bottom of the eighth, Baeza led off the ninth with a chopper to ASU first baseman Nathan Baez, who flipped to Osman. But Osman missed the bag and Baeza reached on the error. Duarte put down a sacrifice bunt and Tyler Best looped a single into shallow right center to move Baeza to third.
Ujimori went down 1-2 in the count, then lifted a flyball that pushed Lampe back a few steps in center field and Baeza scored on the sacrifice fly to give UH the lead.
“They brought in their closer and he’s 94-95 miles an hour … but Aaron can hit a fastball and we knew he wasn’t going to be overmatched,” Trapasso said.
Teixeira, who a year ago was preparing for what would be an abbreviated senior season at Saint Louis, got the first two outs in the bottom of the ninth before surrendering a walk and a single and closed out the game with a grounder to shortstop Kole Kaler, who went 2-for-4 with a double in his return to Arizona.
“That’s what we promise our guys when they come here,” Trapasso said. “We’ll give them opportunity and we trusted him because of how he’s gone about his business in practice, and he got that opportunity and made the most of it.”