Hawaii baseball team suffer another Sunday defeat by UC Riverside

The University of Hawaii baseball team’s hopes for a sweep were left up in the air.

UC Riverside’s Kyle Anderson and Eric Marrujo combined on a three-hitter — with 18 UH outs on pop-ups or flyballs — in a 9-2 victory at the Plex in Riverside, Calif.

“Pretty disappointed with our play overall,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said in a telephone interview. “It kind of puts a damper on the weekend. It was a good weekend on the whole, but just disappointed in how we played today. You tip your cap to Riverside. We’ve got to start to play better on Sundays than what we have been.”

The ’Bows won the first three of this four-game series. A Sunday victory would have brought them back to .500 with home series the next two weekends. Instead, the ’Bows, who fell to 15-11 overall and 7-9 in the Big West, could not solve the riddle of Sunday baseball. This season, the ’Bows are winless in four Big West games on Sundays, being outscored 46-18. On Fridays and Saturdays, they are 7-5 against Big West opponents, with a scoring edge of 56-48.

“We haven’t been good on Sundays,” Trapasso said. “The first three (Sundays of league play), you chalk it up to who you’re playing.” UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State are three of the better Big West teams. “Today,” Trapasso added, “I was disappointed with our lack of production.”

Anderson entered 0-0 with a 5.68 ERA and a 60-pitch limit. He exited after five hitless innings when his pitch odometer reached the maximum. Marrujo pitched the final four innings, yielding UH’s first hit — pinch hitter Konnor Palmeira’s single in the eighth — and two runs.

Anderson was effective with baseball’s equivalent of a float serve.

“All we did was hit it in the air,” Trapasso said. “We didn’t make the adjustment. We didn’t let the ball travel. We didn’t let the ball get deep. We ended up, out of our 27 outs, popping up 18, 19 of them. That’s not making the adjustment to get on top of the baseball. That’s what it was. (Anderson) was floating it up there, but he was locating it and throwing it for strikes. And we just wouldn’t stay back.”

Anderson induced 11 pop-ups or flyouts. Marrujo coaxed seven.

The Highlanders, who improved to 7-16 and 5-11, chipped away against the ’Bows’ succession of pitchers. The theme was set in the third inning when UCR filled the bases on a drag bunt, a misplay on a grounder to second, and a flare to right. Dylan Orick and Nathan Webb hit consecutive sacrifice flies for a 2-0 lead. “We were able to manage that for two,” Trapasso said of the minimal damage. “I thought that was pretty good.”

In the fourth, Ethan Payne’s two-run single made it 4-0. The Highlanders eventually loaded the bases, but Brandon Ross, who replaced UH starter Li‘i Pontes, worked out of that jam. “We managed (that inning) to only two (runs) and didn’t let it turn into a four or five spot. And we’re still in striking distance. And then it just got out of hand. It just got things rolling really well to their credit.”

Bloopers, seeing-eye grounders, smashes added up to 19 UCR hits.

“We gave up 19 hits and only got three — and got no hit for seven (innings),” Trapasso said, “that’s just disappointing. We have to be better. That was not good enough. We need to have a better showing.”