UH baseball team uses ensemble cast to down HPU
George F. Lee / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii’s Jake Tsukada watched the ball leave the yard for a homer against Hawaii Pacific on Tuesday at Les Murakami Stadium.
A pitching cast of nine boosted the Hawaii baseball team to Tuesday night’s 10-1 victory over Hawaii Pacific at Les Murakami Stadium.
A crowd of 1,251 saw nine Rainbow Warriors each pitch an inning and combine to allow seven hits.
Designated hitter Jake Tsukada smacked his second home run of the season and right fielder Jared Quandt had a triple and double as the ’Bows improved to 16-10. The Sharks fell to 19-16.
“I was just trying to hit a line drive up the middle,” Tsukada said of blast to right. “I just got lucky, and the ball left the yard.”
Tsukada, who usually plays second, was 3-for-5 with three runs as the designated hitter.
“I can’t complain, I’m still in the lineup,” said Tsukada, who upped his average to .343. “Just trying to find a way to help the team win. So I’m happy with that.”
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At least for Tuesday night, Harrison Bodendorf returned to his spot as a starting pitcher. He struck out one and walked one in a 19-pitch inning. But in this “staff” game — in which the plan was to use a different pitcher every inning — Bodendorf was done after the first.
Cory Ronan, who had not pitched since March 4, replaced Bodendorf, and produced the game’s best pitching perforance. In his scoreless inning, Ronan did not allow a run or hit, throwing strikes on six of eight pitches.
Nainoa Cardinez, a converted catcher, got the final three outs.
