Without a curfew, the Hawaii baseball team saved its best for later in Wednesday night’s 15-2 rout of Hawaii Hilo at Wong Stadium in Hilo.
Four days after a game was abbreviated to eight innings because of North Carolina State’s travel plans, the Rainbow Warriors made their first road trip of the season — 207 miles — for an interstate contest without any time restrictions. The ’Bows stayed overnight in Hilo, and were set to return to Honolulu this morning.
Producing his share of upsets when he coached at lower-division Cal Lutheran, UH head coach Rich Hill vowed to treat the first meeting against Hilo since 2021 as a “playoff game.” Hill’s lineup included the usual starters, as well as freshman sensation Ituski Takemoto on the mound.
Hill said the experience met projections.
“It exceeded expectations,” Hill said. “That was a packed Wong Stadium. Heavy partisan UH Hilo crowd, which it should be. And for five innings we didn’t know how the thing was going to go. It took everything we had to pull ahead there.”
It was 1-all through the first five innings with both teams squandering opportunities.
The ’Bows took a 1-0 lead without a hit in the second inning. Matthew Miura drew a walk and then stole second and third. After Sean Rimmer was hit by a pitch, Jake Tsukada put down a bunt as Miura raced home on the safety squeeze.
The ’Bows squandered other opportunities. They had made base-running mistakes when two players were picked off second. After filling the bases with no outs in the fourth, Miura was forced out at the plate on a grounder to first. Then Jordan Donahue grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Vulcans’ first run also was produced without a hit in the third inning. Reece Kadota walked, went to second on a wild pitch, raced to third on an error, and scored on another wild pitch. Hilo outfielder Blake Tweedth also was picked off.
But then the ’Bows scored 14 runs in the final four innings to improve to 115-21 in this series between UH system schools. The Vulcans used 11 pitchers.
Miura powered a bases-clearing double, Elijah Ickes doubled home two runs, Kyson Donahue hit a 400-foot solo homer and Jared Quandt pounded a three-run home run to power the ‘Bows.
With runners at the corners in the sixth, Ickes pulled a drive down the left-field line to plate both Tsukada and Jordan Donahue to give the ’Bows a 3-1 lead. “Elijah gets the big hit,” Hill said of Ickes, a freshman.
In the seventh, Kyson Donahue, who entered as a pinch runner in the fifth, hit his second home run of the season.
The next batter, Miura, singled to center, sprinted all the way to third on an errant pickoff, and scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-1.
After the ’Bows loaded the bases in the eighth, Miura emptied them with an opposite-field double to the right-corner.
The ’Bows made it a rout with a seven-run ninth inning.
The big blow was Quandt’s three-run double. Quandt had entered earlier in the game as a defensive replacement.
The ’Bows amassed 10 hits, drew 12 walks and were struck five times by pitches.
Seven UH pitchers combined on a four-hitter. Takemoto, a two-way freshman from Japan, set the way with a scoreless first inning. He struck out two and did not allow a run. This season, Takemoto has pitched five scoreless innings, striking out eight.
Danny Veloz, the fifth UH pitcher, earned the victory. He relinquished two hits in two innings while striking out two.
“We decided to bring Veloz in the game early because it started pouring,” Hill said of summoning Veloz in the fifth inning. “I was thinking it would be a five-inning game. We went to him, and he gave us two quality innings. And then (Alex) Giroux gave us a couple, and we were able to extend.”
Hill added: “Much respect to Hilo. Those guys did things right, made plays. But the environment, and the way our guys responded was awesome.”
UH plays host to Holy Cross on Friday in the first game of a four-game series at Les Murakami Stadium.
HAWAII 15, HAWAII-HILO 2
RAINBOW WARRIORS AB R H BI BB SO
Ickes 3b/ss 4 1 3 3 1 0
Zeigler-Namoa 1b 4 0 0 1 2 2
Calderon pr/lf 0 1 0 0 0 0
Duarte lf/c 4 1 1 1 1 0
Hiraki pr/c 0 1 0 0 0 0
Machado c 2 0 0 0 0 0
K. Donahue ph/lf 2 3 2 2 1 0
Miura cf 3 2 2 3 2 0
Nahaku pr/cf 0 1 0 0 0 0
Rimmer rf 2 0 0 0 1 1
Quandt rf 1 1 1 3 0 0
Tsukada dh 1 1 0 1 2 1
Rivera ph 1 1 0 0 1 0
Miyao 2b 4 1 1 0 0 0
J. Donahue ss 4 1 0 0 0 1
Ujimori ph/3b 0 0 0 0 1 0
TOTALS 32 15 10 14 12 5
VULCANS AB R H BI BB SO
Kadota ss 2 1 0 0 2 1
Min dh 4 0 0 0 0 1
Soto 1b 2 0 1 0 0 0
Ickes 1b 1 0 0 0 0 0
Bl. Tweedt rf 2 0 0 0 0 2
Yamauchi ph 1 0 0 0 0 1
Cook c 3 0 0 0 0 1
Jackson ph 0 1 0 0 1 0
Oshiro 2b 3 0 0 0 0 1
Varljen ph 1 0 1 1 0 0
Fedro 3b 2 0 1 0 1 0
Tilley ph 1 0 0 0 0 0
Yoshida lf 3 0 1 0 0 0
Br. Tweedt cf 3 0 0 0 0 2
TOTALS 28 2 4 1 4 9
Hawaii (4-4) 010 002 237 — 15 10 3
Hawaii Hilo (8-10) 001 000 001 — 2 4 3
E–Bayne, Machado, Veloz; Katdota, Meyers, Bl. Tweedt. LOB–Hawaii 10, Hawaii
Hilo 5. DP—Hawaii Hilo 1. 2B–Ickes 2, K.
Donahue, Duarte, Miura; Varljen. HR–K.
Donahue, Quandt. HBP–Rimmer 2, Duarte, Machado, Miura; Soto, Bl. Tweedt.
SH–Miyao, Tsukada. SF–Ickes. SB–Miura
2. CS–Soto, Yoshida.
HAWAII IP H R ER BB SO
Takemoto 1 0 0 0 0 2
Atkins 1 0 0 0 1 1
Bayne 1 0 1 0 1 1
Tenn 1 0 0 0 0 0
Veloz (W, 1-0) 2 2 0 0 1 2
Giroux 21
3 1 0 0 0 2
Gotschall 2
3 1 1 1 1 1
HAWAII HILO IP H R ER BB SO
Stephens 2 1 1 1 1 1
Honda 1 0 0 0 1 0
Salscheider 0 0 0 0 1 0
Hirata 1 0 0 0 0 0
Perry 1 0 0 0 1 1
Atkinson 0 0 0 0 0 0
Meyers (L, 0-1) 12
3 3 4 3 3 2
Hayashi 1 1 3 3 2 1
Wood 1
3 1 0 0 0 0
Dougal 2
3 3 6 6 3 0
Dickson 1
3 1 1 1 0 0
WP–Bayne 2; Stephens, Perry, Meyers,
Hayashi. HBP–by Stephens (Rimmer), by
Honda (Duarte), by Salscheider (Miura), by
Salscheider (Rimmer), by Perry (Machado);
by Takemoto (Soto), by Tenn (Tweedt). Umpires—(Plate): John Matson. (First): Ikaika
Nishimura. (Third): James LeBeau. T—3:55.
A—3,244
