Things got pretty interesting for the Hawaii baseball team Saturday after the Rainbow Warriors took a nine-run lead against CSU Bakersfield before hanging on for an 11-7 victory in Bakersfield, Calif.
Hawaii coach Rich Hill thinks the ebb and flow of the game will benefit his team in the long run.
“It was a good experience for our guys,” Hill said. “Baseball season has many moods, many personalities and many faces. You have to win a lot of ways to be a champion.”
The Rainbow Warriors scored six runs in the fourth inning and three more in the fifth to take a 9-0 advantage.
In the seventh, CSU Bakersfield got within 10-7 when Cody Hendriks scored on a two-out wild pitch by Hawaii reliever Isaiah Magdaleno. A walk reloaded the bases, and Harrison Bodendorf entered for UH.
Bodendorf fell behind 3-0 to Roadrunners leadoff batter Jonah Shields but battled back to strike him out swinging.
“Bodey was outstanding in a high pressure situation right there,” Hill said. “He was effective. He had the guts of a burglar.”
Bodendorf wound up recording the final seven outs without allowing a run for his first save of the season. The junior left-hander had started four games among his previous five appearances.
Danny Veloz (2-0) allowed one hit over 11⁄3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts for the victory.
The Rainbow Warriors (12-6, 2-0 Big West) have won seven of their past eight.
Hawaii leadoff batter Jordan Donahue and No. 9 hitter Elijah Ickes each had three hits. Austin Machado homered and scored three times, and Stone Miyao and DallasJ Duarte each drove in two runs.
CSU Bakersfield’s Jacob Gutierrez faced the minimum through three innings, but the Rainbow Warriors got to him the second time through the order.
Donahue led off the game with a double and was erased when Jake Tsukada lined into a double play to the right fielder.
Hawaii loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth on Donahue’s double, Jake Tsukada’s single and a hit by pitch to Machado.
Matthew Miura’s ground ball was booted by the third baseman, which allowed Donahue to score the first run of the game.
Ben Zeigler-Namoa hit a bloop single to center, which scored Tsukada, and Machado scored on a passed ball.
The first out of the inning was recorded on Miyao’s sacrifice fly to center, which made it 4-0.
Duarte executed a successful squeeze bunt down the first-base line off new Roadrunners pitcher Gary Grosjean, which scored Zeigler-Namoa. Duarte was credited with a single on the play.
Hawaii went up 6-0 when Ickes singled and Kyson Donahue scored when the right fielder bobbled the ball.
The Rainbow Warriors took a 9-0 lead in the fifth on Kyson Donahue’s fielder’s choice groundout, and run-scoring singles by Duarte and Ickes.
The Roadrunners (3-16, 0-2) cut the deficit to 9-6 in the bottom half of the inning on RBI singles by Noah Alvarez, Matt Kurata and Nick Salas, Hendriks’ run-scoring double and Zavien Watson’s two-run double.
Hawaii hadn’t allowed a run in its previous 15 innings.
Hill said his team maintained its composure when the Roadrunners pulled within three runs and had the potential go-ahead run at the plate in the seventh.
“Business as usual,” Hill said. “They were really focused and know it is all part of it. No one flinched. They were focused on the task at hand.”
Machado’s solo homer to right in the eighth put the Rainbow Warriors ahead 11-7.
Today’s series finale will start at 10 a.m. Senior right-hander Nainoa Cardinez, a Kapaa graduate, will make his third start of the season for Hawaii.
