On the road for the final time in the regular season and in the hunt for a postseason berth, the Hawaii baseball team is ready to take its best shot.
“I call it the 10 free-throw model,” UH coach Rich Hill said of an approach he has implored the past two weeks. “If I asked you to make 10 free throws in a row, you’d be like, ‘It’s a little daunting.’ But if I said, ‘Just make one,’ you can do it. That’s just another way of looking at it, another way of painting the picture for our guys that we’re locked in the moment. There’s really no predictable future and there’s no familiar path. We’re just right here (trying to) be good on Friday night.”
At 12-12 in league play, the Rainbow Warriors are in sixth place — 1 1/2 games behind No. 5 UC Santa Barbara — entering tonight’s road opener of a three-game series against Cal State Fullerton. The ’Bows probably would need to win five of their final six regular-season games for a chance at qualifying for the five-team Big West tournament, whose winner earns the league’s berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The ’Bows went with a starting rotation of Itsuki Takemoto, Sebastian Gonzalez and Cooper Walls in the first three games against Oregon State last week. But Takemoto struggled, and there is a possibility Hill could shuffle the order of the rotation. Walls, who appears to be set as the third-game starter, pitched five scoreless innings against OSU.
Freddy Rodriguez and Isaiah Magdaleno have solidified the bullpen. Liam O’Brien has regained his groove as a reliever. In his past three appearances, O’Brien has not allowed a run in 9 2/3 innings with a 0.72 WHIP. Cory Ronan and Max Jones have made cases for expanded roles. Ronan has allowed two earned runs in 12 2/3 innings over the past six appearances. In the past four appearances, Jones has pitched six scoreless innings.
“We have options in there,” Hill said. “Our guys are going to be on a short leash. It’s a playoff atmosphere where we feel we need to have all hands on deck every game.”
Fullerton has had to navigate injuries and inconsistency impacting the pitching staff. Left-hander Mikiah Negrete is 5-1 with a 4.45 ERA in 12 starts. But the Titans have started 11 pitchers this season.
“That’s been our biggest challenge,” CSUF coach Jason Dietrich said. “I feel like we’re going (ensemble) mid-week pitching on the weekends. … The unfortunate thing is we’ve had some injuries. We’ve had inconsistency. It’s been an ongoing revolving door. But at the end of the day, it’s about finding a way of: How do we attack Friday? And then, how do we attack Saturday? And who do we have for Sunday? And then put the best game plan together.”
There is more certainty in the late innings. Andrew Wright, who parlayed a what-the-heck audition into the closer’s role, has nine saves with a 0.77 ERA. Last month, he had saves in all three games against UC Davis.
“The guy’s confident out there,” Dietrich said. “He attacks the strike zone. It’s not like he’s 96 (mph) with wipeout stuff. He just competes with three pitches and wants the ball.”
The Titans lost their first five Big West games but then won 16 of the next 19 to move into third place at 16-8. They have a better record on the road (14-8) than at Goodwin Field (12-13). After team meetings and players-only gatherings, the Titans also embraced the free-throw method.
“We wanted to play one game at a time, see what happens, play the next day, see what happens,” Dietrich said. “And with that, we started putting some positive weekends together. And the guys started believing, and we started getting better in all facets.”
Freshman third baseman Carter Johnstone has a team-high .352 batting average. Maddox Latta is one of the league’s top all-around shortstops. And first baseman Andrew Kirchner is an impact slugger who averages 1.27 RBIs per game while striking out once every 3.38 at-bats.
“If you look at his RBI total (61), he’s not afraid of the moment,” Dietrich said of Kirchner. “And if he strikes out, whatever, I know there are guys (in the lineup) who can get their swings off. When he’s up there, we have a lot of faith. And if he doesn’t come through, oh, well, we’ll get the next guy up. (Kirchner’s) come through a lot for us.”
