Box Score

HONOLULU - The University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (2-0) defeated the Santa Clara Broncos (0-2) 5-4 in front of a crowd of 2,270 at the Les Murakami Stadium Saturday. Mark Rodrigues gave up two runs in 5.1 innings to get the win while Nate Garcia took the loss for the Broncos. Tyler Davis came in and pitched 3.2 innings to earn his first save of the year.

Jorge Franco led UH offensively, going 2-for-4 with a home run. Evan Zimny went 1-for-3 with two RBI, a double and a run while Brandon Haislet went 1-for-3 with a double and one RBI. Kris Sanchez continued to hit well, going 1-for-2 with a run and two walks.

Santa Clara opened the scoring in the second inning, putting up two runs on a sacrifice bunt and a RBI-single by Ryan Conan. SCU looked to add on to their lead as Gabe Alcatar doubled down the left line. But Franco came up throwing, hitting Elijah Christensen before Christensen threw out the Bronco runner at home, keeping it at 2-0.

Hawai`i came back in the fourth as Zimny hit a two-run double to center, scoring Sanchez and Haislet, tying the score at 2-2. UH then added runs as Ryan Asato and Nathan Young both hit RBI-singles to make it 4-2 in favor of the Rainbows.

The Broncos cut back the deficit to 4-3 in the top of the seventh on a RBI-double by Nathan Faulkner. But UH responded as Franco hit his first career home run to lead-off the bottom of the seventh, giving Hawai`i back their two-run cushion at 5-3.

Santa Clara would add a run in the eighth and got a lead-off single in the top of the ninth. But Hawai`i stopped any chance of a rally as Davis got a fly ball and a force out before Young made a great snag on a line drive to end the game 5-4.

The two teams will close out their series tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. at the Les Murakami Stadium.

-UH-