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A little bit of power and a little bit of finesse vaulted the University of Hawaii baseball team to a 5-2 victory over UC Riverside in Friday’s opener of a three-game Big West series.
A crowd of 1,584 at Les Murakami Stadium saw Matt Wong and Cole Cabrera clobber home runs and Blaze Koali‘i Pontes pitch 4 1/3 innings of mystifying relief as the Rainbow Warriors won their season-high third in a row.
Wong jump-started the ’Bows with his third homer of the season, a solo drive over the fence in the right field in the third inning.
In the seventh, Cole Cabrera broke a 2-all tie with a drive to left that landed on Kalele Road. It was Cabrera’s first homer as a ’Bow — he transferred from Cal Poly in August — and came a pitch after he missed a squeeze attempt. DallasJ Duarte, racing from third, was tagged out by the catcher on that play.
“That was a little bit of a botched squeeze attempt,” Cabrera said of the slider that was a foot wide of the plate. “I tried to get that bunt down. It was out of the strike zone. A lot of things were going through my head at that point. I was like, I’m going to put some barrel on the (next) ball and make up for it.”
Cabrera attacked Sergio Ramirez’s fastball.
“That was my first Les bomb, my first career homer for the University of Hawaii,” Cabrera said. “That was awesome.”
Of Cabrera’s drive into the cross winds, UH coach Rich Hill said, “that’s hard to do here. All of those Rainbow alums who are watching the game or are listening to it, to hit one out at left field when the trades are blowing, is quite a feat.”
The ’Bows added two insurance runs in the eighth. With one out, Jordan Donahue had an infield single to first. Naighel Ali‘i Calderon, the fastest ’Bow, put down a bunt to the right side that pitcher Cruz Barrios fielded. But Calderon beat the throw, which then went past first baseman Joey Nicolai. Donahue raced to third and Calderon sprinted to second.
“My game right now is speed,” Calderon said. “I wanted to take advantage of that. Coach drew it up. He said the first baseman is going to hold (Donahue), so get it over there. I just basically executed.”
Aaron Ujimori, batting left-handed, then hit a grounder up the middle and past a drawn-in infield to score Donahue and Calderon.
“Our approach all the time with the infield in is left to center,” Ujimori said. “I try to hit it up the middle. I got the right pitch, and that’s what I did.”
The ’Bows tied it at 2-all in the sixth. Stone Miyao reached second when left fielder Jacob Badawi misplayed a towering flyball. Jacob Igawa drew a six-pitch walk from Jeremiah Priddy, then reliever Ramirez plunked Wong to load the bases. Jordan Donahue then pulled a grounder to the right side that diving second baseman Sean Mcleod could not glove cleanly. Miyao raced him with the tying run on what was ruled an infield single.
The Highlanders scored two unearned runs in the fifth to take a 2-1 lead and chase UH starting pitcher Cade Halemanu. McCleod opened with a walk and advanced to second Mason Grace’s groundout to third. Anthony McFarland sizzled a shot that third baseman Ujimori fielded but could not make the throw across the diamond in time. Badawi reached on shortstop Kyson Donahue’s error to load the bases. Andrew Rivas was struck by a pitch to tie it at 1. One out later, Dylan Orick walked on four pitches to give UCR the lead, 2-1, and end Halemanu’s outing.
Pontes used a mix of side-to-side fastballs and a slider to hold the Highlanders to three hits and in 41⁄3 scoreless innings.
“Coach always tells us to pound the zone and get ahead (in the count), and that’s what I tried to do,” Pontes said. “I forced early contact, and let the game handle itself.”
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