Hawaii shortstop Jordan Donahue drove in three runs and four UH pitchers worked out of several jams in Thursday’s series-opening 6-3 victory over UC San Diego at Les Murakami Stadium.
“That was a great example of a college game right there,” Hawaii coach Rich Hill said. “A ton of pitchers, some great defense, timely hitting, great fans. Awesome experience for these guys.”
The winner of this season-ending, three-game series is assured one of the five berths in next week’s Big West Championship tournament in Fullerton, Calif. UH, UCSD and UC Santa Barbara entered the week in a fourth-place tie at 14-13.
UCSB, which beat Cal State Bakersfield, and UH took the early leads in the race for the fourth and fifth seeds. UC Irvine, Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton clinched the top three seeds, respectively.
“It’s a Game 7 mentality,” Hill said. “We wanted to go up 1-0 and do whatever we could to do that.”
Before a crowd of 2,253, the Rainbow Warriors scored three runs in the fourth inning to take a 4-2 lead. Jared Quandt led off with a single and raced to third on Elijah Ickes’ single to right field. Itsuki Takemoto then grounded to third as Quandt was caught in a rundown. Catcher Emiliano Gonzalez eventually tagged out Quandt while Ickes reached third base and Takemoto ran to second. Kamana Nahaku was struck by a pitch to load the bases and Donahue singled to center to plate Ickes and Takemoto with the tying and go-ahead runs.
“I was looking for something down, and drive it up the middle,” Donahue said. “Thankfully, I did just that.”
Nahaku, who advanced to third on the play, came home on Ben Zeigler-Namoa’s sacrifice fly to extend the ’Bows’ lead to 4-2.
The ’Bows added two runs in the eighth on Ickes’ run-scoring triple and Donahue’s squeeze bunt down the third-base line.
“Coach gave me the green light to swing away,” said Ickes, who was playing in his fourth game after missing nearly two months because of a broken hand. “It was a fastball down the middle. My thoughts were to hit the ball hard. When you do that, good things happen.”
Four UH pitchers weathered several threats. Isaiah Magdaleno earned the eight-out save, his seventh of the season. He struck out the side in the ninth.
“I was trying to execute my pitches, listen to my coaches, trust the defense behind me and do my job,” Magdaleno said. “I was attacking the batter, trusting my coaches, going all out and emptying the tank when I had to.”
In the first, the Tritons’ squandered Anthony Potestio’s leadoff double when JC Allen hit into an inning-ending double play.
Allen and Alex Leopard had back-to-back, run-scoring singles to give the Tritons a 2-1 lead in the third. But starter Cooper Walls induced Colton Lomanto to pop up to catcher Konnor Palmeira to escape further damage.
Walls is the ’Bows’ usual starting pitcher on Sundays. But last weekend, Walls exited in the third inning after a line drive struck his left calf. Walls was fine the next day. Deciding to shake up the rotation, Hill opted to start Walls on Thursday. He allowed two runs in three innings.
Two singles and a hit batter helped the Tritons load the bases with one in the fourth against Freddy Rodriguez, who entered at the start of the inning. Gonzalez hit a sharp grounded back to the mound. Rodriguez threw home to Palmeira for the forceout at the plate. Palmeira’s throw to first baseman Zeigler-Namoa completed the double play.
The Tritons again loaded the bases in the seventh. Leopard’s sacrifice fly closed the Tritons to 4-3 with two outs. Magdaleno, the fourth UH pitcher, struck out Lomanto for the third out.
The Tritons had lost five key players to season-ending injuries. On Thursday, center fielder Michael Crossland, the Tritons’ leading hitter with a .342 average and 14 home runs, was not in the lineup for the first time this season because of an illness. Left fielder Cooper Thacker moved to center, and Garrett Davidson, who entered hitting .167, started in left field.
BIG WEST BASEBALL
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Irvine 23 5 .821 — 38 12
Cal Poly 21 7 .750 2 35 16
CS Fullerton 18 10 .643 5 28 24
UCSB 15 13 .536 8 35 16
Hawaii 15 13 .536 8 32 18
UCSD 14 14 .500 9 25 24
LBSU 15 15 .500 9 22 29
UC Davis 11 17 .393 12 25 28
CS Northridge10 18 .357 13 15 32
CS Bakersfield 8 20 .286 15 17 37
UC Riverside 5 23 .179 18 16 34
Note: Top five teams qualify for the Big
West Championship, which starts May 21
in Fullerton, Calif.
Thursday
Hawaii 6, UC San Diego 3
UC Santa Barbara 5, CS Bakersfield 4
Cal Poly 14, UC Riverside 9
Cal State Fullerton 9, UC Irvine 7
Cal State Northridge 3, UC Davis 2
x-Oregon State 2, Long Beach State 1
Today
UC San Diego at Hawaii, 6:35 p.m.
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Santa Barbara
UC Riverside at Cal Poly
Cal State Fullerton at UC Irvine
Cal State Northridge at UC Davis
x-Long Beach State at Oregon State
Saturday
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Santa Barbara
UC Riverside at Cal Poly
Cal State Fullerton at UC Irvine
Cal State Northridge at UC Davis
x-Long Beach State at Oregon State
Sunday
UC San Diego at Hawaii, 1:05 p.m.
x-non-conference game
End regular season
HAWAII 6, UC SAN DIEGO 3
TRITONS AB R H BI BB SO LOB
Potestio ss 4 1 2 0 0 0 1
Gonzalez c 5 1 1 0 0 1 2
Camacho dh 3 1 1 0 1 2 0
Allen 3b 4 0 1 1 1 2 1
Leopard rf 3 0 1 2 0 0 0
Lomanto 1b 4 0 1 0 0 2 4
Thacker cf 3 0 1 0 0 1 0
Davidson lf 2 0 1 0 0 0 1
Lanier ph/lf 2 0 0 0 0 1 0
Maher 2b 4 0 2 0 0 0 1
Totals 34 3 11 3 2 9 10
RAINBOW WARRIORS AB R H BI BB SO LOB
Miura cf 4 1 1 0 0 1 1
Sakaino 2b 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Zeigler-Namoa 1b4 0 0 1 0 0 1
Quandt rf 3 1 3 0 1 0 0
Ickes 3b 4 2 2 1 0 2 2
Takemoto dh 3 1 0 0 0 0 0
Lancaster ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
Nahaku lf 2 1 1 0 1 1 0
Donahue ss 3 0 1 3 0 1 0
Palmeira c 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
Nushida ph 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Faildo c 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
Totals 29 6 8 6 2 8 6
UC San Diego 002 000 100 — 3 11 2
Hawaii 100 300 02x — 6 8 0
E—Allen, Dalquist. DP—Hawaii 2. LOB—UC
San Diego 10, Hawaii 6. 2B—Potestio.
3B—Ickes. HBP—Potestio, Camacho; Nahaku, Faildo. SF—Leopard; Nushida. SH—
Thacker; Sakaino, Donahue. SB—Miura,
Nahaku, Donahue. CS—Nahaku.
UC SAN DIEGO IP H R ER BB SO
Dalquist (L, 6-5) 62
⁄3 6 4 4 1 6
Seid 11
⁄3 2 2 2 1 2
HAWAII IP H R ER BB SO
Walls 3 6 2 2 0 1
Rodriguez (W, 6-1) 21
⁄3 3 0 0 0 3
Gonzalez 1 1 1 1 1 0
Magdaleno (S,7) 22
⁄3 1 0 0 1 5
WP—Dalquist. HB—Dalquist 2; Walls, Rodriguez.
Umpires—HP: Rob McKinley. 1B: Garrett
Wells. 3B: Andrew Burke. T—2:57.
A—2,253.
