The UC Riverside baseball team is coming in hot. But that’s just lukewarm compared to its host this week, Hawaii.
The Highlanders — who start a Big West series here against the Rainbows on Thursday — have a three-game winning streak.
“They’re very good offensively and very well-coached and their pitching is starting to come together,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “Just like us. You don’t want to play them at this time, and you don’t want to play Hawaii at this time.”
Maybe not quite “just like.” UH has a winning streak now, too. But it’s a much more impressive eight games.
And the ’Bows’ most recent three wins came against a team that was on a tear of its own when it arrived on Oahu. Cal State Northridge came to Les Murakami Stadium last week with nine wins in a row. The Matadors left gored, outscored 17-3 while being swept by the Rainbows.
That puts UH at the doorstep of its first 30-win season since 2012 and first since leaving the WAC for the Big West. With nine games left in the season, the Rainbows are 29-15 overall and 12-9 in the conference.
They’re seven games ahead of UCR (15-28, 5-16) in the conference standings.
Other indicators also point toward Hawaii being the team more likely to continue its winning ways. Five of the eight wins on this streak are here, and the ’Bows’ home-field advantage should remain significant against the Highlanders.
Most of the world is designed for right-handed people. Murakami Stadium is one of the more notable exceptions.
It’s nothing new; all you need to do is see how the trees beyond the outfield fence bend toward right field, and how the flags flap in the breeze.
“The wise old-school coach the stadium is named after (Les Murakami) knew the formula long ago,” Hill said. “Left-handed pitchers, left-handed hitters.”
It was especially apparent in the CSUN series, when three lefty starting pitchers — Sebastian Gonzalez, Randy Abshier and Harrison Bodendorf combined to allow just two earned runs in 16 2/3 innings.
And who knows? Without the left-to-right wind, maybe that blast off the bat of CSUN’s Jarren Sanderson that was originally ruled a grand slam that momentarily tied the game at 5-all would have been clearly on the fair side of the pole, and not ruled a foul ball after further review by the umpires.
Right-hander Alex Giroux certainly wasn’t bad, either, pitching the last five innings of UH’s win in the first game, striking out eight without allowing anyone to reach base. That earned him the Big West Pitcher of the Week award.
Riverside’s season pitching stats are horrendous, including a 7.10 ERA. But its 5-4 and 3-0 wins against Cal State Bakersfield last week included a strong outing from right-hander Noah Antrunas, who pitched 7 2/3 innings of five-hit ball in the shutout. We’ll see, though, how he fairs against Hawaii’s lineup that includes four lefties who lead the team in batting average: Jordan Donahue (.364), Austin Machado (.340), Kyson Donahue (.331) and Jake Tsukada (.316).
This is UH’s second eight-game winning streak in Hill’s three seasons here. The one from two years ago included a home sweep against the Highlanders.
The 2022 streak salvaged what looked to be a losing transition season.
The 2024 streak has made the Rainbows the hottest team in the Big West, with nine games left to play against squads at the bottom of the standings. Unfortunately, even if they win out there’s virtually no chance for Hawaii to catch nationally ranked UC Santa Barbara (17-4) and UC Irvine (15-6) at the top, or to finish with a Rating Percentage Index good enough to slide into the NCAA regionals for the first time in more than a decade.
But with this run that started two weeks ago, this team has certainly developed into a very entertaining watch — and all three of Hill’s UH teams have improved considerably as the season went along.
