HONOLULU – Freshman Li'i Pontes pitched three scoreless innings out of the bullpen and fellow freshman Dallas Duarte delivered the go-ahead RBI single in the eighth to lift the University of Hawaiʻi baseball team to a 5-4 win over Longwood at Les Murakami Stadium on Friday night.
 
Hawaiʻi (4-5) trailed Longwood (3-6) by a 4-3 margin heading into the bottom of the eighth inning before mounting a comeback.
 
Jack Kennelly's RBI single to score Daylen Calicdan leveled the scoring at 5-5 before Kennelly scored on Duarte's RBI single.
 
Pontes struck out seven of the nine batters he faced, not allowing a hit or a walk in his 3.0 innings of work to pick up the win. Making his third-consecutive Friday night start, sophomore Jeremy Wu-Yelland threw 6.0 innings giving up four runs on six hits with five strikeouts.
 
After falling behind 2-0 in the first, Maaki Yamazaki singled up the middle to score Logan Pouelsen in the bottom of the second. The 'Bows took their first lead in the fourth on a two-RBI single from Tyler Best to plate Yamazaki and Pouelsen for a 3-2 edge.
 
In the fifth, the Lancers regained the advantage 4-3 on a two-run home run from Jawan McAllister.  
 
UH responded with a two-run eighth inning to take the lead for good.

The Rainbow Warriors outhit the Lancers, 11-6, and did not commit an error on the night. 
 
The second game of the four-game set is Saturday, March 2 at 1:05 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.