LONG BEACH, Calif. – The University of Hawai'i baseball team (26-22, 8-13 BWC) saw its offense limited on Sunday at Blair Field, falling 2-1 to the Big West-leading and seventh-ranked Long Beach State Dirtbags (35-16-1, 18-3 BWC) in the series finale. The 'Bows dropped their second one-run game of the series and were swept for the first time this season.
 
For the third game in the series, the Dirtbags made an early scoreboard strike, this time with two outs in the opening frame. After Jarren Duran led off the game with a single, he moved over on a Daniel Jackson sacrifice bunt and crossed the plate on Ramsey Romano's RBI single up the middle. LBSU would tack up a second run on a Brock Lundquist RBI single.
 
The 2-0 deficit dealt Hawai'i an uphill climb against sinker-heavy starter Dave Smith, who kept most of UH's contact on the ground and held the 'Bows to just three hits through the first six innings.
 
After Smith downed 10 consecutive UH batters, left fielder Adam Fogel grabbed everybody's attention in the seventh, launching a solo home run beyond left field to trim the LBSU lead to a single run.
 
Despite surrendering the two runs early, UH starter Jackson Rees settled in on the mound and kept the remaining frames cleared deep into the seventh, yielding the back end to closer Dylan Thomas, who allowed no hits in 1.1 innings of action.
 
As for the Dirtbags, Smith (8-1) settled things down quickly after the UH score, allowing two hits before his exit but no Rainbow Warriors past second base. Smith tosed 8.0 total innings with six UH hits before yielding to closer Chris Rivera in the ninth. Rivera hemmed up the 2-1 LBSU win for his 10th save.
 
Rees (5-2) took the loss for Hawai'i, throwing 6.2 innings with one earned run on seven hits, striking out two.
 
At the plate, all six UH hits came from different hitters.
 
The Rainbow Warriors return home to Les Murakami Stadium for the final series next week, playing host to UC Santa Barbara on Senior Weekend. The Gauchos (22-30, 7-14 BWC) took a three-game sweep at the hands of Cal Poly over the weekend. UCSB is 7-16 away from home and will face Southern Cal on Tuesday before heading to Honolulu.

 

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