Box Score
HONOLULU - Despite scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth, the University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (29-12, 7-6 WAC) fell to the New Mexico State Aggies (15-28, 2-10) 5-3 in front of a crowd of 3,313 at the Les Murakami Stadium Sunday.
Ian Harrington (4-3) took the loss for UH while Brian Gausmann (3-5) picked up the win for NMSU. Dillon Smith pitched the Aggies out of a jam in the ninth to earn his first save of the season.
The loss dropped the 'Bows back to third in the WAC standings, 1.5 games out of first place and one game out of second.
Justin Frash led the 'Bows, going 2-for-4 with two runs. Luis Avila also added a 2-for-4 game while Kristopher Sanchez was 1-for-3 with one RBI.
The Rainbows got on the scoreboard in the first inning for the third-straight game as Frash scored on a wild pitch. But unlike the previous two games in the series, UH failed to hold on to that early edge as the Aggies put up a four-run third inning to take the 4-1 lead and chase off UH starter Harrington.
Pitching took over for the next five innings as Tyler Davis and Matthew Day pitched a combined 6.0 innings, allowing just three hits and a run while striking out six. The NMSU run didn't come until the top of the ninth as Jason Long singled and got to second on a sacrifice bunt before scoring on a two-base wild pitch.
Hawai`i then made their push in the ninth, loading the bases with no outs to force out Gausman, the Aggie starter. Sanchez hit a sacrifice fly to score Frash, with pinch-runner Nathan Young scoring on a wild pitch, cutting the deficit to two runs with two outs. Jonathan Hee and Elijah Christensen walked in back-to-back at bats to reload the bases for Robbie Wilder. But Wilder hit a fly ball to left center that stayed up just long enough for Aggie centerfielder Vince Rodden to get under it, closing the game at 5-3.
The Rainbows will host their final home series next week at the Les Murakami Stadium as Sacramento State comes in for a three-game series starting on Friday, April 28, at 6:35 p.m.
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