The Hawaii baseball team’s wild start spiraled into Saturday’s 12-5 loss to Cal Poly at Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
A crowd announced at 2,892 saw the Mustangs rebound from Friday’s 4-2 setback to remain atop the Big West at 13-1 (24-9 overall). Today’s first pitch is 10 a.m. for the finale of this three-game series.
In falling to 24-9 and 10-7 in the Big West, the ’Bows struggled from Liam O’Brien’s first pitch.
O’Brien, who is the ’Bows’ hardest thrower, entered as the national leader with 3.3 hits allowed per nine innings. But his control issues — 11 walks in his previous 10 innings — continued. O’Brien threw one strike in his first 13 pitches to load the bases with no outs in the first.
After a 2-1 count to cleanup hitter Jack Collins, UH head coach Rich Hill made his second visit to the mound, signaling O’Brien’s exit.
Sebastian Gonzalez, who had not allowed an earned run in five games and 16 innings since moving to bullpen, completed the walk to Collins to force in the Mustangs’ first run. By rule, Collins’ walk was credited to O’Brien.
Casey Murray’s sacrifice fly, and run-scoring singles from Nate Castellon and Cam Hoiland capped the Mustangs’ four-run first inning. The Mustangs’ first-inning runs and the five pitches Gonzalez threw to Collins were all charged to O’Brien.
“It’s been a work in progress,” Hill said.
The ’Bows closed to 4-2 on Jordan Donahue’s run-scoring single in the second inning and Itsuki Takemoto’s sacrifice fly in the third.
But Castellon’s RBI double made it 5-2 in the bottom of the third, Hoiland belted a solo homer in the sixth, and the Mustangs moved out of reach with a five-run seventh.
“They kept putting it on us all day,” Hill said. “Double-digit hits. I thought their relief guy ended up being pretty good.”
Chris Downs, who replaced starter Josh Volmerding with two outs in the fifth, allowed three hits and two runs in 31⁄3 innings to improve to 4-0.
While Tanner Sagouspe and Jake Torres are considered co-closers, the left-handed Downs has been this year’s surprise for the Mustangs. “He’s been our best arm out of the bullpen,” Cal Poly coach Larry Lee has said of Downs, who leads with a 1.91 ERA.
Hill praised Gonzalez, who pitched six innings of relief, allowing three runs.
“He had his wisdom tooth pulled on Wednesday, and he came in and threw close to 90 pitches,” Hill said. “Pretty good job by him.”
Both teams amassed 13 hits and did not commit an error. But the ’Bows could not produce another comeback, such as when they overcame a six-run deficit to Cal State Northridge two weeks ago or a 2-1 hole in the ninth inning on Friday. Down 4-2 in the third, the ’Bows stranded two runners. In the eighth, Hunter Faildo and Donahue each had a two-out RBI. The ’Bows also scored a run and had a runner on third with one out in the ninth but could not get any closer.
“We kept coming at them all game long.” Hill said. “Hit and run, putting pressure on them, one swing away to tie it up. I love the fight in this team and we’ll be ready (Sunday).”
BIG WEST BASEBALL
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
Cal Poly 13 1 .929 — 24 9
UC Irvine 12 2 .857 1 24 8
CS Fullerton 9 6 .600 41
⁄2 17 17
Hawaii 10 7 .588 41
⁄2 24 9
UCSB 9 8 .529 51
⁄2 23 10
LBSU 8 9 .471 61
⁄2 14 18
UCSD 6 8 .429 7 15 18
CS Bakersfield 6 8 .429 7 13 23
UC Davis 5 9 .357 8 16 17
CS Northridge 4 13 .235 101
⁄2 8 22
UC Riverside 3 14 .176 111
⁄2 12 21
Saturday
Cal Poly 12, Hawaii 5
UC San Diego 9, Cal State Northridge 5
UC Davis 7, UC Irvine3
Long Beach State 7, CSU Bakersfield 5
UC Santa Barbara 18, UC Riverside 8
x-Oregon State 17, Cal State Fullerton 10
Today
Hawaii Cal Poly, 10 a.m. Cal State
Northridge at UC San Diego
CSU Bakersfield at Long Beach State
UC Irvine at UC Davis
x-Oregon State at Cal State Fullerton
UC Santa Barbara at UC Riverside
x-nonconference game
CAL POLY 12, HAWAII 5
RAINBOW WARRIORS AB R H BI BB SO LOB
Sakaino 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 1
Miura cf 5 1 2 0 0 0 2
Zglr-Namoa. 1b 3 1 1 0 2 1 0
Nahaku lf 3 0 0 1 0 1 0
Lancaster 3b 5 0 1 0 0 1 2
Quandt rf 5 1 3 0 0 1 1
Takemoto dh 2 1 1 1 0 0 2
Kinzie ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
Faildo c 4 1 2 1 0 1 2
Donahue ss 4 0 2 2 0 0 0
Totals 36 5 13 5 2 7 10
MUSTANGS AB R H BI BB SO LOB
Vachini lf 3 3 1 0 1 0 0
Fenn 2b 4 2 2 1 1 0 0
Garza 3b 4 2 2 1 1 0 1
Collins c 3 2 0 1 2 2 0
Murray Jr. cf 3 1 1 2 0 0 2
Kordic rf 3 0 0 1 0 1 0
Castellon ss 4 1 3 3 0 0 0
Hoiland dh 4 1 2 2 0 2 1
Downing 1b 4 0 2 0 0 1 0
Totals 32 12 13 11 5 6 4
Hawaii 011 000 021 — 5 13 0
Cal Poly 401 001 51x — 12 13 0
Records:
Hawaii (24-9, 10-7 Big West)
Cal Poly (24-9, 13-1 Big West)
DP—Cal Poly 1. LOB—Hawaii 10, Cal Poly
4. 2B—Zeigler-Namoa, Faildo; Castellon.
3B—Vachini. HR—Castellon. Hoiland.
HBP—Sakaino, Nahaku. SH—Vachini. SF—
Nahaku, Takemoto; Murray Jr. 2; Kordic.
CS—Castellon.
HAWAII IP H R ER BB SO
O’Brien (L, 2-2) 0 0 4 4 4 0
Gonzalez 6 7 3 3 0 4
Tenn 1
⁄3 2 3 3 1 0
Adamson 2
⁄3 1 1 1 0 1
Andrews 1 3 1 1 0 1
CAL POLY IP H R ER BB SO
Volmerding 42
⁄3 8 2 2 2 4
Downs (W, 4-0) 31
⁄3 3 2 2 0 3
Cooper 1 2 1 1 0 0
O’Brien pitched to 4 batters in the 1st.
Gonzalez pitched to 1 batter in the 7th
WP—Tenn. HB—Volmerding 2.
Umpires—HP: Christopher Torres. 1B:
Devin Shehab. 3B: Rob McKinley. T—2:59.
A—2,892.
