UC Davis rallies to beat Hawaii and spoil pitcher Blaze Koali‘i Pontes’ ‘lights out’ effort

Blaze Koali’i Pontes ran Hawaii’s streak of shutout pitching against host UC Davis to the first 16 innings of their three-game set Saturday. But the Aggies did what they needed to against UH’s relievers and beat the Rainbows 3-2 to even the series.

UH fell to 10-7 and 17-18 overall with its first Big West loss after eight straight wins. UC Davis improved to 3-14 and 4-21.

The Rainbows led 2-0 after seven innings of stellar pitching from Pontes, but Cameron Hagan allowed the tying runs in the eighth and Andy Archer the winner in the ninth.

Archer (1-5) yielded three consecutive singles after striking out the first batter he faced. Nick Leehey drilled a one-out single to score J.D. Mico from third for the walk-off win.

“Any time you lose one late like that it’s tough. But you gotta hand it to Davis for hanging around and then getting some good swings when they needed them,” Hawaii coach Rich Hill said. “Andy left two over the plate he’d like to have back.”

The Aggies’ Kaden Riccomini (1-4) pitched the final six innings for the win, after Nolan Meredith started and allowed no hits in three innings.

Pontes struck out a career-high 12, including seven in a row in seven shutout innings. He allowed seven hits and pitched his way out of situations with runners on second and third in the first and seventh innings.

“Unreal, 12 punchouts and no walks,” Hill said. “Lights out.”

Combined with Cade Halemanu’s performance on Friday, UH’s starters have struck out 22 Aggies and walked one in 13 innings.

Hawaii was hitless until Jacob Igawa started the seventh with a clean single to left and eventually scored on Matt Wong’s sacrifice fly.

The Rainbows added a run in the eighth when Scotty Scott singled up the middle, went to third on Cole Cabrera’s single to left and scored on Aaron Ujimori’s squeeze bunt.

UC Davis tied it in the eighth on Jake Brandel’s two-run double off Hagan, who had retired the first two batters of the inning before the Aggies rallied. “The double was really well hit,” Hill said.

Igawa doubled to start a promising Hawaii ninth. Stone Miyao then bunted for a single that extended his hitting streak to 12 games. The Rainbows had the bases loaded with one out, but Scott grounded into a double play.

Buddy Pindel will start today’s final game of the series, Hill said. Dalton Renne, who pitched the final three innings of UH’s 3-0 win in relief of Halemanu on Friday, might be available out of the bullpen.

“There’s a really good chance,” Hill said. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”