Embracing a self-styled “winning time” approach, the Hawaii baseball team crafted a 10-5 victory over UC Riverside at Les Murakami Stadium.
A crowd of 2,253 saw the Rainbow Warriors resolve seventh-inning misfortune to sweep the three-game series and move into a tie for fourth place in the Big West. UH and Cal State Fullerton are both 13-11 in league play, although the ’Bows hold the tie-breaker. The top five teams qualify for the Big West Tournament.
“It’s winning time,” UH head coach Rich Hill said of the stretch run. “It doesn’t matter what anybody else does. It’s all in front of us.”
Hill made the right strategic moves in the series finale. For the first time this season, switch-hitting shortstop Taylor Takata batted sixth in the lineup. (He usually bats at the bottom of the lineup.) Hill figured the Highlanders would use a pitching ensemble, opening with left-hander Joshua Martinez, then summoning a series of right-handed relievers.
“Taylor is one of our better left-handed batters right now,” Hill said of Takata, who is hitting .302 against right-handers. “He puts the bat on the ball and takes really good at bats. We just kept bumping him up the lineup.”
Takata went to 3-for-4, driving in a run with a triple that bounced over the right fielder and rolled to the wall. Takata, who has filled in for injured shortstop Elijah Ickes, went 6-for-10 this series.
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Takata redshirted last season after transferring from Orange Coast College. In recent weeks, he has worked with hitting coach Dave Nakama on spraying hits to all fields. Takata said he learned he would bat sixth just before he lined up for the national anthem.
“It’s always going to be the process no matter where I am in the lineup,” Takata said. “Just stick to the approach and do whatever it takes to get the win.”
With the score tied at 2, the ’Bows loaded the bases with one out. Against left-handed Martinez, Hill decided to replace right-handed Tino Bethancourt with left-handed pinch hitter Christian Hoffman.
“It goes against the grain,” Hill said of the lefty-lefty matchup. “(Martinez’s) got a little bit of a Frisbee slider. I thought Christian’s bat speed really matched up well. Christian is sometimes better against a lefty because you don’t to worry about the changeup or back-flip slider. We just played a hunch.”
Hoffman pulled a ground out to first to bring home Ben Zeigler-Namoa with the go-ahead run.
The Highlanders took a 5-4 lead on two fluke plays in the seventh inning. With the bases loaded with one out, Lucas Bonham hit what appeared to be a double-play grounder toward UH second baseman Noah Rodriguez. But the ball struck second-base umpire Matt McMahon, who was unsuccessful in jumping out of the way. By rule, it was deemed an RBI single that tied it at 4 and reloaded the bases.
Andrew Rivas then hit a fly ball that center fielder Kamana Nahaku dropped. Nahaku threw to Takata for the force out at second as pinch runner Hunter Backstrom scored the go-ahead run.
“It’s part of the game,” Rodriguez said of the ball caroming off the umpire. “I know everybody’s blaming him, and he feels bad. I think if that would have beaten us, that’s not a good sign. We’re better than that. Sure enough, the game took care of itself.”
In particular, Zeigler-Namoa gave the ’Bows a 6-5 lead with a towering two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. The ’Bows would score four more runs that inning to move out of reach.
Although the Highlanders pitched around Zeigler-Namoa most of the series, he decided to stick with his heat-seeking approach.
“Stay on the heater,” Zeigler-Namoa said. “I wasn’t getting pitched to a lot this weekend. I tried to stick to fastball timing and it came out pretty good. … Team was down one, and I tried to put the bat on ball, and execute for my guys. I got it in the air, and it was pretty cool.”
Hill said: “It’s how you respond. You can suffer or make that decision mentally to go to that neutrality space and look through the windshield of what’s next. I thought our guys did a great job.”
Rodriguez went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs.
Brody Martin-Grudzielanek allowed two hits in five innings. John Alkire II earned the eight-out victory.
“Those were not easy 21⁄3 innings,” Zeigler-Namoa said of Alkire’s outing. “He did really well.”
| BIG WEST BASEBALL STANDINGS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Conference | Overall | ||||
| W | L | Pct. | GB | W | L | |
| Cal Poly | 17 | 7 | .708 | — | 27 | 19 |
| UCSB | 16 | 8 | .667 | 1 | 30 | 15 |
| UC San Diego | 14 | 10 | .583 | 3 | 19 | 24 |
| Hawaii | 13 | 11 | .542 | 4 | 24 | 19 |
| CS Fullerton | 13 | 11 | .542 | 4 | 21 | 25 |
| CS Northridge | 11 | 13 | .458 | 6 | 24 | 22 |
| UC Davis | 12 | 15 | .444 | 6 ½ | 23 | 24 |
| UC Irvine | 10 | 14 | .417 | 7 | 20 | 25 |
| Long Beach St. | 10 | 16 | .407 | 8 | 17 | 29 |
| UC Riverside | 9 | 15 | .375 | 8 | 14 | 32 |
| CSU Bakersfield | 9 | 15 | .375 | 8 | 20 | 28 |
| RESULTS & SCHEDULE |
|---|
| Sunday Results |
|
Hawaii 10, UC Riverside 5 Cal Poly 8, UC Irvine 6 Long Beach State 6, UC San Diego 4 UC Santa Barbara 19, CS Bakersfield 9 UC Davis 6, Cal State Fullerton 2 x-Oregon State 5, Cal State Northridge 2 |
| Tuesday Schedule |
|
x-Cal Poly at Santa Clara x-Pepperdine at UC Santa Barbara x-Cal Baptist at CS Northridge x-San Diego State at UC San Diego x-Sacramento State at UC Davis x-UC Irvine at San Diego x-Fresno State at CS Bakersfield x-Cal State Fullerton at USC |
| x-nonconference game |
| HAWAII 10, UC RIVERSIDE 5 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGHLANDERS | |||||||
| PLAYER | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | LOB |
| Gibbs rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Bolyard ph | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Hall pr/lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bonham 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Rivas 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sanderson 3b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Sepulveda c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Hernandez lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Scott ph/rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Pitts cf | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Chapman ss | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Walton dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Backstrom pr/dh | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 34 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 6 |
| RAINBOW WARRIORS | |||||||
| PLAYER | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | LOB |
| Nahaku cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Shimao 3b | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Zg.-Namoa rf/lf | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Lau Kong dh | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Rolbiecki lf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Martin 1b | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Takata ss | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Bethancourt 1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Hoffman ph/rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Wright pr/rf | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rodriguez 2b | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Sanchez c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Redding ph/c | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 34 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 8 |
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Riverside | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 3 |
| Hawaii | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | x | 10 | 10 | 2 |
| PITCHING & GAME NOTES | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC RIVERSIDE | ||||||
| PITCHER | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Martinez | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Hudson | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Hernandez (L 0-1) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Blanchet | ⅓ | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Becker | ⅔ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Byrd | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| HAWAII | ||||||
| PITCHER | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Martin-Grudzielanek | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Tomii | 1 ⅓ | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Garman | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Alkire II (W 2-2) | 2 ⅔ | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
|
Records: Hawaii (24-19, 13-11 Big West), UC Riverside (14-32, 9-15 Big West) E—Rivas 2, Pitts, Nahaku, Takata. LOB—UC Riverside 6, Hawaii 8. 2B—Chapman. 3B—Takata. HR—Sanderson, Zeigler-Namoa. HBP—Nahaku. SB—Zeigler-Namoa. CS—Gibbs. WP—Garman. HBP—by Martinez (Nahaku and Shimao). PB—Sanchez. Umpires—HP: Brian Kline. 1B: Devin Shehab. 2B: Matt McMahon. 3B: Ikaika Nishimura. T—3:30. A—4,347 (tickets issued); 2,253 (turnstile). |
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