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Another Sunday in the park was another disheartening outing for the Hawaii baseball team.
Cal State Bakersfield took advantage of UH’s poor starting pitching and defensive lapses — four errors and four passed balls — en route to a 7-4 victory at Les Murakami Stadium.
The Rainbow Warriors have lost all five of their Big West games on Sundays, increasing their scoring deficit to 53-22 on that day.
In losing three of four this weekend, the ’Bows fell to 16-14 overall and 8-12 in the Big West. CSUB is 11-8 and 8-4.
The ’Bows suffered additional setbacks this weekend. Left-handed reliever Brandon Ross, who left the game in the third inning, re-injured his pitching elbow. Ross initially suffered a UCL injury during summer ball and underwent a procedure during the winter break. “We’ll evaluate it,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said, “but it doesn’t look good going forward.”
Trapasso also confirmed that third baseman Matt Campos will undergo surgery for a hand injury suffered in Friday’s loss. “Campos broke the hamate bone,” Trapasso said. “He’s out indefinitely, and most likely for the rest of the year. We’ll have to see. He needs surgery.”
The momentum from UH’s victory in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader apparently came with an expiration date. UH right-hander Jake Hymel lasted only two innings, surrendering four runs — all in the second inning. In Big West games on Sunday, the ’Bows’ starting pitchers have a combined 14.34 ERA and 2.91 WHIP. None of those Sunday starters pitched more than 3 1/3 innings in league games.
“I wouldn’t call it ‘erratic,’” Trapasso said of the Sunday starting pitching. “I’d call it bad. … Jake wasn’t good today, but you can’t put it all on Jake. It was everybody. It was a bad game.”
Of the seven walks the ’Bows issued, three of the Roadrunners came around to score.
The ’Bows also unfurled two wild pitches. Two Roadruners scored on passed balls.
Jared Quandt went 2-for-3, but he was charged with four passed balls. “He needs to be better,” Trapasso said of Quandt. “He will. He’s only a freshman.”
Jashia Morrissey’s chopper over 6-foot-4 first baseman Alex Baeza drove in two runs in the Roadrunners’ four-run second. Kobe Silva’s sacrifice fly extended CSUB’s lead to 5-1 in the third.
The ’Bows closed to 5-2 on Jacob Igawa’s run-scoring double off the wall in right field in the third. The ’Bows chased CSUB starter Roger Angelo with a two-run fourth. Quandt tripled, then scored on a balk when Angelo did not come to a stop before throwing a pitch. Scotty Scott’s ground single through the left side brought home Stone Miyao to make it 5-4.
“We started off well offensively, got their starter out of there,” Trapasso said. “But once they changed pitchers, he shuts us out for five innings.”
The ’Bows amassed 10 hits, but only two against reliever Ethan Skuija. Skuija retired 11 of the first 12 ’Bows he faced. In Skuija’s 5 1/3 innings, the ’Bows had only one runner in scoring position. Kole Kaler singled with two outs, stole second, and continued to third when catcher Cody Holtz’ throw sailed into center field. But Skuija struck out Scott to end the sixth. Skuija finished with eight strikeouts and no walks.
“When we don’t play well enough to win, we can’t expect to win,” Trapasso said. “We’ll get back to work. We start right now getting ready for (UC) Davis.”
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