In a matchup of baseball teams a mile and a division apart, Hawaii held off Chaminade 2-0 at Les Murakami Stadium.
A Tuesday night crowd of 970 saw the Rainbow Warriors prevail in the first meeting between the teams. Chaminade competed for two seasons through 1982 before going on hiatus until this year.
Ten UH pitchers combined on a two-hitter. The ’Bows walked four and struck out 13. The Silverswords did not have a hit after the third inning nor a baserunner in the final four innings. Freshman right-hander Brayden Marx, who pitched a hitless fourth inning with a strikeout, was awarded his first victory.
“I just go out there and try to compete with my best stuff,” said Marx, who is averaging 17.6 strikeouts per nine innings in six appearances. “I lean a lot on my curveball. That’s my bread and butter. It misses the barrel a lot, and that’s why I like it. That’s where most of my strikeouts come from. … I started throwing it when I was 11 or 12. I kept throwing it and mastering it. It’s been a big part of my arsenal.”
Kyson Donahue’s sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and Elijah Ickes’ run-scoring single in the fifth staked the ’Bows to a 2-0 lead.
For the ’Bows, this was a mid-week bridge between a recent seven-game, 11-day road trip and this weekend’s Big West series against Cal Poly. Former UH pitching coach Chad Konishi is head coach of the Silverswords’ resurrected Division II team.
The Silverswords entered with 28 losses in their first 43 games. Their starting pitcher, Mac Elske, was 1-3 with an 8.79 ERA in 11 appearances. But Elske was perfect in three innings, allowing no hits and throwing strikes on 17 of 28 pitches.
“He pitched good tonight, and without his best pitch,” Konishi said of Elske. “His changeup has been his best pitch all year. He didn’t throw one changeup for a strike tonight, but he competed. He used the confines of Les Murakami Stadium (for) fly ball outs. He hit his spots. He threw strikes.”
In the fourth, Elske gave way to Max Patterson, who is considered the Silverswords’ ace. Jake Tsukada hit a one-out single to center and raced to third on Austin Machado’s single up the middle. Donahue then drove an 0-2 pitch to left to bring home Tsukada for the game’s first run.
“I was looking for a pitch up and I was kind of out of my approach, swinging at pitches I shouldn’t have,” Donahue said of the two swinging strikes. “And then luckily he hung a change with two strikes and I was able to put a barrel on it.”
In the fifth, Ben Zeigler-Namoa drew a leadoff walk, went to second on a groundout and came home on Ickes’ single to center.
In this “staff” game of emptying the bullpen, the ’Bows entered with a plan of using up to 14 pitchers.
“You just ask the guys to be ready for every situation they’re asked to come in,” UH pitching coach Keith Zuniga said. “Any time you can get them out there in a live game and get some live bullets — whether it be an inning or two innings — you just want them to get that game-time environment.”
Eight pitchers, starting with Nainoa Cardinez, logged an inning. Charlie Adamson, who had not pitched since Feb. 13, struck out two of the three batters he faced in the fifth.
“Charlie’s a monster in the weight room,” Zuniga said. “He’s continuing to work out, continuing to get his long-toss program in. … Charlie’s always ready, and he’s been waiting for his opportunity. He showed it today.”
After Connor Harrison, the ninth UH pitcher, induced the first out of the ninth inning, Danny Veloz was summoned. Veloz struggled two days earlier as a starter, lasting only 12⁄3 innings. On Tuesday, he got the final two outs for his first save.
“Danny was a little bit out of character on Sunday, but you always want to give those guys the ball right away,” Zuniga said. “Short-term memory. Get back on and have something to feel good about going into this important weekend.”
HAWAII 2, CHAMINADE 0
SILVERSWORDS AB R H BI BB SO
Ruch rf 1 0 0 0 2 1
Kleinman 3b 4 0 0 0 0 1
Kudell 1b 3 0 1 0 1 1
Navyac dh 4 0 0 0 0 2
Lobetos cf 3 0 0 0 1 2
Williams ss 3 0 0 0 0 2
Kitazaki lf 3 0 0 0 0 1
DuCoeur c 3 0 1 0 0 1
Kim 2b 2 0 0 0 0 1
Regalla ph 1 0 0 0 0 1
Karns 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 27 0 2 0 4 13
RAINBOW WARRIORS AB R H BI BB SO
J. Donahue ss 4 0 1 0 0 0
Tsukada lf 3 1 1 0 1 0 Calderon lf 0 0 0 0 0 0
Machado c 4 0 1 0 0 0
K. Donahue 1b 2 0 0 1 0 0
Miura cf 3 0 0 0 0 1
Zeigler rf 2 1 0 0 1 0 Quandt rf 0 0 0 0 0 0
Miyao 2b 3 0 0 0 0 0
Duarte dh 2 0 0 0 1 0
Ickes 3b 3 0 1 1 0 1
TOTALS 26 2 4 2 3 2
Chaminade (15-29)000 000 000 — 0 2 0
Hawaii (20-14) 000 110 00x — 2 4 0
DP—Chaminade 1. LOB—Chaminade 5, Hawaii 4. HBP—Ruch. SF— K. Donahue. CS—
Ruch, Lobetos.
CHAMINADE IP H R ER BB SO
Elske 3 0 0 0 0 0
Patterson (L, 4-5) 12
3 3 2 2 1 1
Castro 21
3 0 0 0 1 0
Brown 1
3 1 0 0 1 1
Chambers 2
3 0 0 0 0 0
HAWAII IP H R ER BB SO
Cardinez 1 1 0 0 1 0 Magdaleno 1 0 0 0 0 1
Takemoto 1 1 0 0 2 2
Marx (W, 1-0) 1 0 0 0 1 1
Adamson 1 0 0 0 0 2
Atkins 1 0 0 0 0 1 Gotschall 1 0 0 0 0 2
Standish 1 0 0 0 0 2
Harrison 1
3 0 0 0 0 1
Veloz (S,1) 2
3 0 0 0 0 1
HBP–by Adamson (Ruch).
Umpires—(Plate): John Matson. (First): Jedd
Andrade. (Third): Jim LeBeau. T—2:19.
A–2,688.
