The Hawaii baseball team continued its pitching dominance with Sunday’s 2-0 road victory over Long Beach State at Blair Field.
Before a crowd of 2,032, six pitchers combined on a six-hitter for the Rainbow Warriors’ fifth shutout of the season. In the past nine Big West games, the ’Bows are 8-1 with a 1.42 ERA.
All the offense the Rainbow Warriors needed was manufactured on Jake Tsukada’s RBI double in the first inning and Itsuki Takemoto’s run-scoring groundout in the second.
Pitchers Brayden Marx, Zacary Tenn, Danny Veloz, Takemoto, Connor Harrison and Alex Giroux helped the ’Bows claim two of three this weekend to improve to 34-16 and 17-10 in the Big West.
“It’s Game 7, win or go home,” UH coach Rich Hill said of the all-in strategy of starting a reliever (Marx), bringing back two pitchers who played on Friday (Harrison and Giroux), and using Takemoto at the plate and on the mound.
“It’s all hands on deck,” Hill said. “You see it in the big leagues all the time in the playoffs, where starters come in to relieve. You have openers. I can’t say enough about our pitching staff. That’s a shutout on a Sunday with bullpen guys. Brayden Marx really got out of jams. I thought Zac Tenn was phenomenal. Itsuki was great. And then you get to Connor Harrison and Giroux on one day’s rest. That’s a ’Bow Warrior performance right there.”
In the ninth, the Dirtbags loaded the bases with two outs. In a visit to the mound, Hill reminded Giroux of focus techniques.
Deep breaths are “a big part of our development,” Hill said. “Outcome visualization is huge. We’re really committed to the mental game. We feel it’s the separator.”
Kyle Ashworth then hit a grounder that went past Giroux and appeared headed to center field.
“I tried to reach down for it,” Giroux said. “It was kind of one those ‘tweener ones where it’s hit a little hard, a little soft. I reached down for it but didn’t really get a piece. I had faith in my shortstop (Jordan Donahue). He’s been making those plays all year. I knew once it got through and I saw Jordan right there, we had it.”
Donahue’s throw to his cousin, first baseman Kyson Donahue, clinched the ’Bows’ seventh series victory against nine Big West opponents.
“I didn’t think it was going to get through (for a hit),” Hill said. “We were playing (left-swinging Ashworth) slight pull. Jordan gets such a good jump on the ball. He’s been phenomenal all year.”
Giroux threw 44 pitches in four innings on Friday. During Sunday’s warmup, Hill asked Giroux if he would be available as a closer.
“And, of course, I’m not going to turn that opportunity down,” Giroux said.
Giroux, a right-hander, said his sinker “was moving arm-side pretty good. My arm felt a lot better than I was expecting it to after Friday. I’m happy with how I felt and how we got the job done.”
Of the tense ending, Giroux said, “not intentional. But we got the win.”
Takemoto, a freshman from Japan, went 1-for-3 as the designated hitter and allowed two hits in 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.
“It was so fun,” Takemoto said. “I was, like, a two way in high school. This is my first time in college. … I want to say thank you to Coach (Rich Hill) for giving me the opportunity.”
Hill had worked with several two-way players during his 23 seasons as San Diego’s head coach.
“We’re very used to this being at USD all those years, working with two-way players,” Hill said. “You go down to the ’pen after an AB, start stretching out, play a little bit of light toss. You just have to time it when they make an out or are going to be in the dugout.”
BIG WEST BASEBALL
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UCSB 23 4 .852 — 39 12
UC Irvine 20 7 .741 3 41 11
Cal Poly 18 9 .667 5 33 21
Hawaii 17 10 .630 6 34 16
UCSD 17 13 .567 71
2 30 23
CS Northridge 15 12 .556 8 29 22
UC Davis 11 16 .407 12 27 26
!-LBSU 9 18 .333 14 24 27
CS Fullerton 7 20 .259 16 16 35
CS Bakersfield 7 20 .259 16 14 36
UC Riverside 6 21 .222 17 16 33
!-does not include one tie
Sunday
Hawaii 2, Long Beach State 0
UC Riverside 6, UC Davis 5
UC Irvine 18, Cal State Fullerton 4
Cal Poly 7, UC San Diego 5
UC Santa Barbara 6, CS Northridge 4
Thursday
Cal State Fullerton at Hawaii, 6:35 p.m.
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Davis
UC Riverside at UC Santa Barbara
Long Beach State at Cal Poly
Cal State Northridge at UC Irvine
Friday
Cal State Fullerton at Hawaii, 6:35 p.m.
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Davis
UC Riverside at UC Santa Barbara
Long Beach State at Cal Poly
Cal State Northridge at UC Irvine
Saturday
Cal State Fullerton at Hawaii, 4:05 p.m.
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Davis
Cal State Northridge at UC Irvine
Long Beach State at Cal Poly
UC Riverside at UC Santa Barbara
HAWAII 2, LONG BEACH STATE 0
RAINBOW WARRIORS AB R H BI BB SO
J. Donahue ss 4 1 2 0 1 1
Tsukada 2b 4 0 1 1 0 0
Machado c 3 0 0 0 1 0
K. Donahue 1b 4 0 0 0 0 3
Duarte lf 4 0 1 0 0 0
Nahaku lf 0 0 0 0 0 0
Miura cf 4 1 2 0 0 0
Quandt rf 3 0 0 0 1 1
Takemoto dh/p 3 0 1 1 1 0
Calderon pr 0 0 0 0 0 0
Ickes 3b 4 0 1 0 0 1
TOTALS 33 2 8 2 4 6
DIRTBAGS AB R H BI BB SO
Champagne cf 3 0 2 0 1 0
Ashworth rf 4 0 1 0 1 1
Charpiot lf 3 0 0 0 1 0
Newman c 2 0 0 0 1 0
Briseno ss 4 0 0 0 0 0
Lopez 2b 4 0 0 0 0 2
Santander dh 4 0 1 0 0 1
Roulston pr 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hammond 1b 3 0 0 0 0 0
Banda ph 1 0 1 0 0 0
Borgogno pr 0 0 0 0 0 0
Marinconz 3b 4 0 1 0 0 2
TOTALS 32 0 6 0 4 6
UH (34-16, 17-10) 110 000 000 — 2 8 2
LBSU (24-27-1, 9-18) 000 000 000 — 0 6 0
E—Ickes, Tenn. DP—Hawaii 1, LBSU 2.
LOB—Hawaii 8, LBSU 11. 2B—Tsukada,
Miura. HBP—Champagne, Newman Jr.
SB—Ashworth, Borgogno. CS—Champagne.
HAWAII IP H R ER BB SO
Marx (W, 4-0) 2 1 0 0 2 3
Tenn 3 1 0 0 1 2
Veloz 0 0 0 0 1 0
Takemoto 12
3 2 0 0 0 0
Harrison 11
3 0 0 0 0 0
Giroux (S,1) 1 2 0 0 0 1
LONG BEACH STATE IP H R ER BB SO
Montgomery (L, 3-4)62
3 6 2 1 2 4
Miskelly 2
3 0 0 0 2 1
Wallerstedt 1
3 0 0 0 0 0
Cherry 11
3 2 0 0 0 1
Marx pitched to 1 batter in the third
Veloz pitched to 2 batters in the sixth
HBP—by Veloz (Newman, Jr.); by Giroux
(Champagne). PB—Newman Jr.
Umpires—(Plate): Anthony Norris. (First):
Chris Schultz. (Second): Darren Hyman.
(Third): Randy Sutton. T—3:01. A–2,032.
