Hawaii came up 90 feet short of another ninth-inning rally on Sunday.
Grant Meylan’s sliding catch in right field robbed Johnny Weeks of a game-tying hit and gave Santa Clara a four-game split against the Rainbow Warriors with a 5-4 victory at Les Murakami Stadium.
Despite the loss before a light Easter afternoon crowd of 870, there weren’t any hanging heads or dejected faces in the home dugout following Hawaii’s second loss in seven games.
The Rainbow Warriors (11-14) were clearly ready to start Big West play and even more importantly, waved goodbye to the final four-game series of the season.
“It’s time,” said Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso, whose team went 1-4 in the fourth game of a series. “It’s time to get going in conference play. I like this team. I like where we are, now it’s just time to go out and do it.”
UH ended the nonconference slate three games under .500, but has played some of its better games in the past two weeks.
Hawaii outhit the Broncos 11-5 on Sunday but lost the game giving up four runs in the third inning while allowing only one hit.
Left-hander Patrick Martin (1-1) gave up a walk, hit a batter and threw a ball away at first on a bunt attempt to load the bases.
Lawrence Chew walked in a run, gave up a single and allowed two sacrifice flies to make it 5-0 before retiring his final 11 batters.
“You’re not going to win many games when you have an inning with four straight freebees, but we don’t do that and haven’t done that,” Trapasso said. “They put up zeros the rest of the way and gave us a chance.”
Kekai Rios singled and scored in the third inning and doubled home a run in the seventh to make it 5-2.
UH trailed by the same score in the ninth when Chayce Ka’aua led off with a single and Rios collected his third hit against Broncos closer Max Kuhns.
Josh Rojas followed with a two-run single to make it 5-4 and put the tying run on base.
Matt LoCoco singled to move Rojas to second and Rojas tagged up on Jacob Sheldon-Collins’ fly ball to right to get to third.
Weeks fell behind 0-2 before hitting a line drive to right that forced Meylan to charge in and make a sliding catch to give Kuhns his seventh save.
“You’ve got to keep your composure in that situation and Max did,” Santa Clara coach Dan O’Brien said. “Once we got a four-run lead today we went back to our old ways and everyone stopped competing at the plate.
“I think we’re all just struggling to play consistent baseball and get to the point where our guys are showing up ready to win ball games every day.”
Hawaii gave up just 11 runs in the series and hit .263 with 16 runs scored. LoCoco and Sheldon-Collins had seven hits apiece, including two on Sunday, and set the table all series at the top of the order.
Hawaii’s middle of the lineup went 0-for-12, but got help from Rios, who was 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.
Rojas finished with a career-high three hits and drove in two runs.
“More toward the Michigan series I think a lot of people started getting big swings and losing focus at the plate and now we’re looking for more pitches that are strikes and pitches we can attack,” Rojas said.
Rios has started 20 consecutive games at catcher, including eight in the past 11 days. He threw out his 10th runner stealing a base and his three hits raised his average to .338, trailing only Sheldon-Collins, who is at .386.
Ka’aua’s return will give him a break behind the plate, but it’ll be hard to keep him out of the lineup.
“I’m just thankful to be out here and luckily I went to church and things were dropping,” Rios said.
Ka’aua finished 2-for-12 in three games returning from a broken finger. He should be available to catch and play in the infield, giving Trapasso options heading into the Big West opener Friday against UC Irvine.
“(Ka’aua) had one or two days of batting practice in the last six or seven weeks and we threw him in against a good pitching staff and he was still solid,” Trapasso said. “He’ll get better at-bats and that will be big for our lineup.”
SANTA CLARA 5, HAWAII 4
| Broncos |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
| Cortopassi 2b/3b |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Meditz rf |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Meylan pr/rf |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Florentine lf |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Berman dh |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
| Brodt 1b |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Woods cf |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
| Budnick 3b |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Reyes 2b |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Fisher ss |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Frankfort c |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| TOTALS |
28 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
| Rainbow Warriors |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
| LoCoco cf |
5 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Sheldon-Collins ss |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Weeks 3b |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Ramirez 1b |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Doi lf |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Ka‘aua dh |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Rios c |
4 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Baldwin rf |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Rojas 2b |
4 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| TOTALS |
35 |
4 |
11 |
4 |
3 |
6 |
| Santa Clara (10-12) |
014 |
000 |
|
000 |
|
— |
5 |
5 |
0 |
| Hawaii (11-14) |
001 |
000 |
|
102 |
|
— |
4 |
11 |
1 |
E—Martin. DP—Santa Clara 2. LOB—Santa Clara 7, Hawaii 8. 2B–Budnick, Fisher, Sheldon-Collins, Rios. HBP—Florentine, Berman, Fisher. SH—Meditz, Brodt. SF—Brodt, Budnick, Sheldon-Collins. CS—Meylan.
| Santa Clara |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
| Seever (W, 3-1) |
61⁄3 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
| Medeiros |
12⁄3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Kuhns (S, 7) |
1 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
| Hawaii |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
| Martin (L, 1-1) |
2 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| Chew |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
| Pigg |
11⁄3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
| Friesen |
1⁄3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Valencia |
1⁄3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Mitchell |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Martin faced 3 batters in the 3rd. WP–Medeiros, Kuhns. HBP—by Martin (Florentine), by Pigg (Berman), by Friesen (Fisher). Umpires—(Plate): Ramon Armendariz. (First): Ryan Bleiberg. (Third): Jason Venzon. T—3:03. A—870.
