Hawaii baseball upsets No. 13 N.C. State
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii’s Ben Zeigler-Namoa fields a ground ball against Ole Miss on Feb. 16.
Ben Zeigler-Namoa drove in the go-ahead runs with a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth inning and Hawaii rallied to knock off No. 13 N.C. State 7-5 tonight.
A sold-out Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 3,147 watched the Rainbows (3-3) score four times in the bottom of the eighth to pull out the win.
Jordan Donahue pulled Hawaii within a run with a one-out single to shallow right that scored Stone Miyao, who led off with a walk.
Austin Machado and Dallas Duarte drew two-out walks to load the bases for Matthew Miura, who struck out swinging. The ball got away from catcher Jacob Cozart allowing Donahue to score to tie it.
Zeigler-Namoa followed with a hard-hit grounder back up the middle that went off the glove of a diving Matt Heavner at second to put UH in front.
Freshman Itsuki Takemoto worked a perfect ninth inning to earn the save. He needed only six pitches — all strikes.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
Hawaii starting left-hander Randy Abshier took a shutout into the fifth inning and struck out a career-high 11 and didn’t walk a batter in five innings.
Sean Rimmer connected for a solo homer in the sixth inning to put UH in front 3-1.
The Wolfpack rallied with at least a run in four consecutive innings. Errors by UH allowed N.C. State to score the tying and go-ahead runs.
The rubber match of the series is set for Sunday at 1:05 p.m.
