DallasJ Duarte’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning helped an ailing Hawaii baseball team earn a feel-good, 4-3 road victory over UC Davis at Dobbins Stadium in Davis, Calif.
A Sunday-matinee audience of 445 saw the Rainbow Warriors win their second consecutive extra-inning game to take the three-game series and improve to 18-11 and 4-5 in the Big West. The Aggies fell to 15-14 and 5-7.
In the 10th, Kyson Donahue drew a walk against Carter Delaney, the first of three Aggies to pitch in the inning. Donahue went to second on Ben Zeigler-Namoa’s single to center. Both runners advanced on Elijah Ickes’ sacrifice. Duarte then hit a drive to center for the decisive sacrifice fly.
Alex Giroux, who started Friday’s opener, pitched three scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory. Like many of his teammates the past two weeks, Giroux has been battling a cold.
“Our whole team has been sick,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “Everybody’s been coughing. We’ve got all kinds of congestion going on for the last two weeks. We just don’t want to use that as an excuse. Alex came to us today and said he felt better than he did on Friday. And it showed.”
Relying mostly on an 89-mph fastball, right-handed Giroux allowed two hits and struck out five. “A lot of life on his fastball,” Hill said. “He kind of looked like the old Alex.”
With Giroux as the reliever, it was closer Danny Veloz who earned his first UH start after 11 relief appearances.
“We’ve been toying with that if Danny is available,” Hill said of Veloz, who allowed two hits and a run in three innings. “He kind of proved he can go long against UC Irvine (a week ago). He’s been a starter his whole life. He threw 11 pitches on Friday, fully rested Saturday. We just wanted him to empty the tank today.”
Veloz, who threw 19 pitches to 10 batters, gave way to left-hander Sebastian Gonzalez.
Gonzalez relinquished leadoff homers to Riley Acosta in the fifth and Damion Stone in the sixth, the latter tying it at 3. But Gonzalez was otherwise effective, striking out four and walking none in two innings. “His fastball was alive,” Hill said of Gonzalez. “He was really beating those guys with one pitch.”
Tyler Dyball pitched two scoreless innings to set up Giroux.
“That was a great victory, man, a team victory all the way through,” Hill said. “It was great to see Alex Giroux bounce back. Danny Veloz, Tyler Dyball, Sebastian Gonzalez — pitching was the story of this game. Great defense once again. And timely hitting by Dallas Duarte.”
The ’Bows could not cash in on three previous opportunities to break a 3-all tie. In the seventh, Ickes singled and then appeared to steal second base. But Duarte was ruled to have committed batter’s interference with catcher Acosta’s throw. Duarte was called out and Ickes returned to first base.
“You don’t see that called very often, and we had two in the same game,” Hill said.
Two batters later, UH hit into an inning-ending double play.
In the eighth, the ’Bows loaded the bases with three consecutive two-out walks. But reliever Kaden Riccomini entered, inducing Ickes to ground out.
In the ninth, the ’Bows again loaded the bases with two outs. But Carter Delaney struck out Naighel Alii Calderon.
“That’s baseball, so you have to tip your cap a little bit,” Hill said, adding “the team that deserved to win the game, won the game. We had 11 hits, a lot more barrels, a goose egg in the error column, and pitched great. We deserved to win.”
BIG WEST BASEBALL
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Irvine 10 2 .833 — 24 4 Cal Poly 9 3 .750 1 18 12 UCSD 8 4 .667 2 21 8 CS Northridge 7 3 .700 2 17 12 UCSB 5 4 .556 31
2 17 10 Hawaii 4 5 .444 41
2 18 11 !-LBSU 5 7 .417 5 16 12 UC Davis 5 7 .417 5 15 14 CS Bakersfield 5 7 .417 5 10 21 CS Fullerton 3 9 .250 7 10 19 UC Riverside 0 9 .000 81
2 9 18 !-does not include one tie
Sunday
Hawaii 4, UC Davis 3, 10 inn.
Cal Poly 8, UC Riverside 3
UC Irvine 11, UC Santa Barbara 4
Cal State Bakersfield 5,
Cal State Fullerton 4
UC San Diego 6, Long Beach State 5
x-CS Northridge 18, Utah 4
x-non-conference game
HAWAII 4, UC DAVIS 3, 10 INN.
RAINBOW WARRIORS AB R H BI BB SO
J. Donahue ss 5 0 3 1 1 0 Tsukada 2b/lf 4 0 0 0 0 0 Quandt rf 1 0 0 0 0 1 Miura cf 4 1 1 0 1 0 Machado dh 3 1 3 0 1 0 Calderon pr/lf 1 0 0 0 0 1 K. Donahue 1b 3 1 0 0 2 0 Zeigler-Namoa lf/rf 3 0 1 1 1 2 Ickes 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 Duarte c 3 1 0 1 1 0 Nahaku rf 1 0 0 0 0 1 Miyao ph/2b 3 0 2 0 1 0 TOTALS 35 4 11 3 8 5
AGGIES AB R H BI BB SO
Stone lf 4 1 2 1 0 1 Lee 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 Wolbert cf 4 0 0 0 0 2 Leehey 2b 4 1 2 0 0 0 Forshey dh 4 0 1 0 0 1 Howard pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 Acosta c 3 1 1 2 0 1 Gouveia 3b 4 0 0 0 0 1 Murphy rf 2 0 0 0 0 0 Gallagher ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 Iverson rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 Felix ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 Wright ss 3 0 1 0 0 1 Hanson ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 TOTALS 35 3 7 3 0 11
Hawaii (18-11, 4-5) 010 110 000 1 — 411 0
UC Davis (15-14, 5-7)010 011 000 0 — 3 7 2
DP–UH 1; UCD 2. LOB–UH 12; UCD 3.
2B–Donahue, J., Machado; Leehey. HR–
Stone, Acosta. SH–Ickes. SF–Zeigler, Du- arte; Acosta. SB–Calderon, Miyao;
Howard.
HAWAI IP H R ER BB SO
Veloz 3 2 1 1 0 1 Gonzalez 2 3 2 2 0 4 Dyball 2 0 0 0 0 1 Giroux (W, 4-1) 3 2 0 0 0 5
UC DAVIS IP H R ER BB SO
Valdez 6 7 3 3 1 3 Hogan 1
3 2 0 0 0 0 Lerma 11
3 0 0 0 3 0 Riccomini 1
3 0 0 0 0 0 Delaney 1 1 0 0 2 2 Batres (L, 2-2) 0 1 1 1 1 0 Speights 2
3 0 0 0 1 0 LaCour 1
3 0 0 0 0 0 WP–Valdez. Umpires—(Plate): Dax Upton.
(First): Sid Aguilar. (Second): Jeff Cluff.
(Third): Joseph Gonzalez. T—3:00. A–445.
