RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The University of Hawai'i baseball team scored 17 unanswered runs from the seventh inning on Friday night until the bottom of the first inning of game two on Saturday, shutting out UC Riverside 7-0 in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader and then winning 13-4 in the second game. Junior
Kole Kaler became the sixth Rainbow Warrior to hit for the cycle by hitting a single, double, triple and home run in the second game of the doubleheader.
Game 1:
Riverside started off out-hitting and threatening Hawai'i multiple times in the game, but each time freshman
Austin Teixeira worked his way out of the jam and held firm. Teixeira lasted 6.0 innings, struck out one, and gave up just five hits.
The Rainbow Warriors scored in four straight innings, plating singular runs in the fifth and sixth inning before hanging crooked numbers in the seventh and eighth.
Third baseman
Matt Campos opened the scoring for Hawai'i in the fifth inning with his first career home run, a solo homer to left field. Campos finished the day with two hits and two RBI.
Designated hitter
Jacob Igawa drove in the second run in the following inning.
In the seventh inning, Hawai'i scored two runs on three straight singles from second baseman
Aaron Ujimori, shortstop
Kole Kaler and left fielder
Scotty Scott and a sacrifice fly from Igawa.
In the eighth inning, first baseman
Alex Baeza doubled to lead off the inning and then scored on a Campos single. Kaler then singled with two-outs to score Campos and then Scott singled to score Kaler who had swiped second base.
Sophomore
Cade Halemanu came in for a three-inning save. Halemanu set down seven straight batters before allowing a baserunner and faced 10 batters in his nine outs that he powered through. Halemanu struck out a pair.
Game 2:
There's a lot to unpack here. A cycle from Kaler, a four RBI day from Fogel, and the most runs in Big West game since the 'Bows scored 15 at UC Riverside on April 13, 2019.
Kaler started the game with a single on the first pitch of the game. The shortstop tripled in the second inning and then hit a triple into the right field corner in the fourth inning. A two-run home run in the sixth inning completed the cycle, the first since 1996 and sixth in school history.
Fogel had his third-career four RBI game and his second of 2021. Fogel plated a pair in the first inning on a double down the left field line and plated two more on a double to dead center field in the fifth inning.
The Rainbow Warriors scored runs in five different innings, scoring one run in the second and eighth innings and plated four in the first, two in the fourth and five in the sixth.
Hawai'i clubbed 15 hits in the game with nine of the 15 coming from the 1-4 batters. Three different Rainbow Warriors drove in multi runs, Kaler and Igawa with two RBI and Fogel with his four.
Kaler scored four runs, Scott scored three times and Igawa and Fogel each scored two runs.
The Rainbow Warriors and Highlanders meet on Sunday for a 10 a.m. HT series finale. Hawai'i has a chance to sweep a road series for the first time since 2016.
