The expected rainfall did not materialize for Friday night’s baseball game.
Instead, it was UC San Diego dousing the Hawaii buzz in a 12-6 victory at Les Murakami Stadium.
In the hope of clinching a berth in next week’s Big West Championship tournament, the UH Pep Band performed, sportscaster Neil Everett was on the P.A. mic for a half inning, and UH Circle of Honor recipient Kolten Wong delivered the pep talk.
But before a crowd of 3,465 (announced as a sellout), the Tritons proved to be spoilers. Alex Leopard delivered a bases-clearing triple in a five-run fourth for a 7-3 lead and JC Allen drove in five runs, three coming on his 13th homer of the season.
“He’s got a lot of power,” UCSD coach Eric Newman said of Allen.
The Tritons managed only six hits and struck out 15 times.
“The stat line’s kind of weird today,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “That doesn’t sound right.”
The Tritons also drew eight walks, were hit by three pitches and reached first on a wild pitch and passed ball following a third strike.
“They walked us and we did the extra-base-hit thing,” Newman said of the Tritons’ two doubles, a triple and home run. “This offense can beat you in a lot of ways. That’s been our calling card to take free bases and get extra-base hits. That’s exactly what we did tonight.”
The outcome left the teams in a tie for fifth place at 15-14, setting up Sunday’s winner-take-all, regular-season finale. Five teams qualify for the Big West tournament in Fullerton, Calif. UC Irvine, Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara already clinched four of the berths.
The winner of this three-game series between UH and UCSD is assured the final berth. The Rainbow Warriors won on Thursday 6-3, and relied on the Tritons’ wildness to take a 3-2 lead in Friday night’s third inning.
Matthew Miura led off the third with a walk and, one out later, advanced when first baseman Gabe Machado fielded Ben Zeigler-Namoa’s grounder but threw wildly to second. Jared Quandt beat out a grounder to first to load the bases. Quandt scored on Nic Gregson’s wild pitch to close UH to 2-1. Zeigler-Namoa then scored from third on Gregson’s second wild pitch to tie it at 2. Elijah Ickes’ RBI groundout to second brought home Quandt with the go-ahead run.
Gregson had entered the game with one wild pitch among his 542 pitches this season.
The ’Bows appeared to be coasting under Cory Ronan, who earned the start as part of a reshuffled rotation. Freshman Cooper Walls moved from his usual Sunday spot to start in Thursday’s series opener. The UH coaches decided to go with Ronan for the middle game.
“I thought Cory was outstanding,” Hill said. “We made the decision to start him, kind of neutralize those left-handed bats. I thought he did a fantastic job. He had a three-pitch mix going. That’s the longest outing of his career.”
Ronan allowed only Camacho’s two-run double, in the first three innings. He exited after allowing a leadoff walk in the fifth. After the Tritons loaded the bases, Michael Crossland’s RBI groundout tied it at 3. Camacho was hit by Liam O’Brien’s pitch to load the bases. One out later, Leopard cleared them with his triple down the right-field line.
O’Brien, who had been masterful in his last three appearances, allowed four runs — three of them earned — and hit two batters in two-thirds of an inning.
“You know Liam, he has electric stuff,” Hill said. “Tonight wasn’t his night.”
Allen’s two-run double extended the Tritons’ lead to 9-3 in the sixth.
In the eighth, Allen pulled a drive over the fence in left.
“That was pretty cool,” Allen said of his three-run homer. “I’ve been told all year the ball doesn’t fly to left field here. The fact that one went out is pretty awesome.”
Newman said: “Credit to our guys. They knew what they were coming into. You lose the first one, and now you know your backs are against the wall. You’ve got to lean into those moments. And the guys did a great job. They came together.”
