HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i baseball team (26-22, 10-11 BWC) secured a Senior Day victory and also a second consecutive winning season on Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium, steadily moving past Long Beach State (26-28, 11-10 BWC) in a 4-1 win.
 
After falling behind early in each of the two losses that opened the Long Beach State series, the Rainbow Warriors were challenged early on Sunday. Clayton Andrews scored in the first on an infield error that allowed Leonard Jones to reach base with two outs.
 
Although it took three innings, the Rainbow Warriors didn't wait long to respond, knotting the score in the third frame off an RBI single from senior left fielder Johnny Weeks, scoring Jacob Sniffin. However, the 'Bows weren't done with the third, taking the lead as Maaki Yamazaki crossed the plate on a Chayce Ka'aua RBI double.
 
Despite the early run, the Sunday outing was redemptive for starter Jackson Rees, who shutout the Dirtbags in five of his six-inning appearance, returning to the mound for his second start of the week after a thrown ball opened a cut that knocked him out of Friday's opener.
 
In the meantime, Weeks expanded the UH lead in the fifth, scoring on a Dirtbags error.
 
After Rees handed off to Kyle Hatton and Dylan Thomas for another blank LBSU frame, the 'Bows added another strike, as right fielder Adam Fogel belted his seventh home run of the year, making the score 4-1 in UH's favor and reaching the highest homer count since Kolten Wong also had seven in 2011.
 
Wrapping up the victory, Thomas earned his 14th save of the year to tie Lenny Linsky (2011) for the most single-season saves in UH history, tossing 2.1 hitless innings with only his second walk of the year and three strikeouts. Rees (5-3) earned the victory with one run on four hits, striking out three.
 
At the plate, Weeks went 3-for-4 to lead the 'Bows, batting in one run and scoring another to lead Hawai'i.
 
After the win, UH celebrated the efforts of 12 outgoing seniors in the annual Senior Day ceremony: Jedd Andrade, Matt Estes, Brody Hagel-Pitt, Chayce Ka'aua, Troy Kakugawa, David Noworyta, Jordan LaFave, Eric Ramirez, Matt Richardson, Neil Uskali, Dylan Vchulek and Johnny Weeks.
 
The Rainbow Warriors have one more series to go in the 2018 season, hitting the road to UC Santa Barbara next weekend, facing the Gauchose in a three-game series at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, May 24-26.