The University of Hawaii baseball team avoided the threat of rain and Brigham Young’s ninth-inning rally for Thursday night’s 3-2 victory at Les Murakami Stadium.
“You sure like the way the guys dug in and found a way,” said UH coach Mike Trapasso, whose team is 4-0 for the first time since 1999. “That’s a game where we can mature and gain some confidence.”
The gloomy forecast never was fulfilled, although the ’Bows were in an early funk, trailing 2-0 through the first four innings. But they scored two runs to tie it in the fifth, then took their first lead in a dramatic eighth inning.
Right fielder Adam Fogel hit a one-out single to center and, another out later, first baseman Eric Ramirez drew a six-pitch walk. Ethan Lopez then hit a liner that 6-foot-5 third baseman Nate Favero knocked down.
“I thought it was going through,” Lopez said. “The guy’s a tall, lanky guy, and he got a glove on it. Thank God it came out.”
Favero then overthrew first baseman Brian Hsu as Fogel sprinted home with the go-ahead run.
“It was like, ‘Oh, (bleep), we’re about to win this game,” Fogel recalled. “The adrenaline was pumping. Give credit to Ethan. He’s been putting good swings on the ball all week.”
Dylan Thomas, who had converted all 11 of his previous save opportunities during his two-season UH career, was summoned to pitch the ninth. Pinch hitter Mackay Jacobsen hit a towering pop-up that Thomas could not field.
“I was camping underneath,” Thomas said. “I thought I had it, but it started tailing with the wind.”
Left-handed-hitting David Clawson then pulled a swinging bunt that Ramirez mishandled.
Hsu bunted foul Thomas’ first two sliders and then struck out.
“I was trying to execute my pitch,” Thomas said. “I know the slider is a hard pitch to bunt. I was trying to make sure I hit my spot with that.”
Thomas coaxed Mitch McIntyre to fly out to Fogel in right, then struck out Brennon Anderson for his third save of the season.
Despite receiving an IV for flu-like symptoms, Jackson Rees pitched five innings, spacing six hits and striking out five. He departed before the sixth after he began bleeding from a broken fingernail.
“He was really efficient,” Trapasso said of Rees. “We told him, ‘There’s no telling how much you have in the tank. Keep pounding the zone.’ ”
Trapasso also praised Kyle Hatton, a left-hander who pitched three shutout innings. Hatton is in his first season with UH after previously pitching for UC Santa Barbara and Riverside City College.
“Can’t say more about putting up three zeros,” Trapasso said.
The ’Bows, who stranded runners at third in the first and third innings, finally broke through with two runs in the fifth to tie it at 2.
Shortstop Maaki Yamazaki hit an opposite-field double to left-center to open the fifth. One out later, Kekai Rios, who was mired in a 1-for-10 slump, singled to left to score Yamazaki. Rios scooted to second base on the throw home. Then Dustin Demeter pulled a drive to right to bring home Rios with the tying run.
Rees was on the mark early, with a seven-pitch first inning and then two quick outs in the second. But Rees, who threw strikes on 13 of his first 14 pitches, walked Jake Brown. Then Clawson hit a drive past Ramirez at first and down the right-field line to score Brown with the game’s first run.
The Cougars scored another two-out run to extend their lead to 2-0 in the fourth inning. Favero singled to left field, then came around to score on Brown’s double to left-center.
