Box Score

HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i baseball team treated the Rainbow faithful to a thriller on Saturday night, topping UC Davis, 5-4, in 11 innings at Les Murakami Stadium. Pi'ikea Kitamura slapped a base hit to right field to drive home Stephen Ventimilia with the game winning run.

Ventimilia had a stellar night for the Rainbows, batting 3-4 with three runs. Collin Bennett recorded three hits to go along with one RBI, and Breland Almadova added two hits and one RBI.

Nick Lynch batted 2-4 with one run and two RBI, including a game-tying two-run homerun in the sixth inning. David Popkins added two hits and two runs for UC Davis, who fell to 11-12.

Hawai'i (16-12) held a 4-2 lead before Lynch's homer evened matters. Both teams had opportunities to take the lead in the late innings, but pitching and defense on both sides pushed the game to extra innings. Ventimilia walked to open the 11th inning, and advanced to second on a perfect sacrifice bunt by Aliviado. Kitamura then singled home Ventimilia to win the game.

Jesse Moore (1-0) pitched the 11^th inning to earn the win for Hawai'i. UCD reliever Harry Stanwyck (1-2) was tagged with the loss, allowing one run on two hits in 2.2 innings of work.

The Rainbows opened the scoring with a run in the first inning. Bennett drove a pitch up the middle to score AJ Bayus (1 H, 2 RBI) from second base. UH then tacked on two more runs in the third inning when Bayus ripped a two-RBI double to left field, scoring both Ventimilia and Aliviado.

Rainbow starter Scott Squier pitched three shutout innings before the Aggies finally got to him. UCD scored a pair of fourth-inning runs to cut the lead to 3-2. Popkins led off the inning with a base hit, then Paul Politi (2-4, 1 H, 1 RBI) laced a double to the right field wall to score Popkins.

The 'Bows added a run in the fifth inning, but UCD tied the game in one flew swoop. David Longville, who entered the game in relief of Squier, gave up the two-run blast to Lynch which tied the game at 4-4.

UCD starter Tom Davis struck out 10 Rainbow hitters before leaving the game after seven innings.  

There were 3,797 tickets issued for the contests, and a turnstile count of 2,632.

Hawai'i and UC Davis conclude their series on Sunday at 1:05 p.m.





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