Once again, the Hawaii baseball team was at its Sunday best.
The ’Bows pounded four solo home runs, held North Dakota State to three hits — none in the final six innings — and did not make an error in a 13-1 rout in the Tony Gwynn Legacy in San Diego.
“Why don’t we bottle that game?” said Rich Hill, whose ’Bows are 13-2 on Sundays in his two seasons as UH head coach. “That was pretty much the opposite of what happened on Friday.”
Two days after losing 14-2 to San Diego in the tournament’s opener, the ’Bows heated up in the 54-degree temperatures at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
Right fielder Jared Quandt belted two home runs, and designated hitter Jacob Igawa and left fielder Tai Walton each smacked one apiece. In the previous five games, the ’Bows hit three homers in 153 at bats.
Quandt, a switch-hitter who did not play last season while recovering from a labrum injury, has hit three home runs this season. He went 3-for-5 on Sunday before exiting for a pinch runner in the eighth inning.
Walton, who usually is used as a pinch runner or defensive replacement, entered with a unique stat of four runs in two at-bats. Walton, Matt Miura and Bronson Rivera were candidates for an outfield spot. Hill decided to ink Walton on the lineup card for the second time this season.
“Everybody is going to get that opportunity,” Hill said. “I love when guys get that opportunity and take advantage of it, like Jared Quandt and Tai Walton did today.”
Walton had two hits and scored two runs.
Igawa went 3-for-5 and scored three runs, first baseman Ben Zeigler-Namoa scored three times, and center fielder Matt Wong amassed four hits.
The Bison scored the first run of the game on an RBI groundout, but managed only two hits the rest of the way against Randy Abshire and Alex Giroux. Giroux pitched five hitless innings to earn the victory.
Abshier, a transfer from Arizona, made his second start of the season. After settling down from that opening inning, he allowed a two-out walk to James Dunlap and went to a full count before striking out Will Busch in the fourth inning.
Abshier departed after allowing three hits and an earned run in four innings. “The plan is there is no plan,” Hill said of the game plan for Abshier. “The plan is don’t save anything for the swim back. That’s the plan. Randy was good, but his pitch count (71 to 16 batters) got up there a little bit. Alex was ready to go, and we made the move.”
Giroux, a right-hander who pitched the previous two seasons at Clark College in Washington, walked one and plunked a batter in five shutout innings.
“He just mixes,” Hill said of Giroux’s repertoire. “He’s not going to overpower you. You can get lulled to sleep with the breaking ball and changeup, and then he’ll pop that 88-mph fastball that looks like it’s 94. He’s very deceptive. His ball moves a lot. I was glad to see what he did. It’ll do a lot for his confidence.”
Abshire and Giroux were able to eat up enough innings to set the pitching plan for today’s game against San Diego State. Harrison Dodendorf is expected to start and, depending on the situations, will be followed by Zeigler-Namoa, Tai Atkins, Tyler Dyball, Trevor Ichimura and Connor Harrison.