SAN DIEGO, CALIF.— The University of Hawai'i baseball team won a 6-5 marathon of a Monday night game against San Diego State at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
 
The Rainbow Warriors (4-4) duplicated what they did a week ago by dropping the first two games of a four-game set but recovered with two wins to even it out for a .500 record. Before falling on Monday, the Aztecs (3-5) picked up two wins in the Tony Gwynn Legacy and will wrap up five straight days of play with a game against UC Irvine on Tuesday.
 
UH struck in the top of third following sophomore second baseman Matt Aribal's hit-by-pitch to start the inning. After advancing to second on a wild pitch, graduate center fielder Cole Cabrera doubled to left field, sending Aribal home for the 1-0 advantage.
 
The lead began to build in the fifth for UH as Aribal and senior left fielder Scotty Scott led off with walks in the inning. Cabrera sent a single to right, loading the bases. Junior right fielder Matt Wong drew another walk allowing the first run of the inning, while junior first baseman Jacob Igawa was hit by a pitch forcing in the second run. The inning's third run came off a groundout to first by sophomore third baseman Aaron Ujimori, sending Cabrera across the plate and a 4-0 lead.
 
UH kept a combined no-hitter alive into the seventh before finding trouble. San Diego started with three straight hits to load the bases. A single up the middle scored two runs, and a hit-by-pitch would juice the bases again. The Aztecs pushed one more across on a groundout before an intentional walk brought junior pitcher Tai Atkins on in relief. With the bases loaded for the third time, Atkins got a ground ball to end the inning UH led 5-3.
 
SDSU kept the momentum going in the eighth with a leadoff walk, followed by a single. With two runners on the double, they would score one and leave the tying run 90 feet away. The next batter laid down a safety squeeze and tied things 5-5.
 
The Warriors went into the ninth looking for some heroics but would not get any. Neither team would in the final frame, leading to first extra-innings contest of the season. Both team remain scoreless rolling into the 15th inning, the most innings played by UH since 2011 against Rice.
 
In the top of the 15th, Hawai'i managed to draw back-to-back walks, bringing up sophomore pitcher Trevor Ichimura to the plate. Falling in the count 0-2, he was plunked to load the bases with no outs. Aribal with the bases loaded grounded into a 1-2-3 double play. With two strikes, junior left fielder Scotty Scott managed to get an infield single and pushed across the go-ahead run. Wong slapped a single to bring another run in, and Igawa got hit-by-pitch for the third time to bring in an additional run for an 8-5 lead.
 
The Aztecs were shut down in the bottom half of the 15th to finish the marathon of a game.
 
Ichimura earned his first win in 5 2/3 innings of relief. He allowed three hits, no runs, and struck out four.
 
Cabrera, Wong, and Igawa had two RBIs each. While, Aribal paced the 'Bows with three hits.
 
The extra-innings game lasted a whopping six hours and 14 minutes, the longest game since 1994 and longest in Hawai'i history. The Rainbow Warriors also saw their most pitching appearance ever with nine.
 
The 'Bows will return to the island of O'ahu for an eight-game home stand beginning with No. 5 Vanderbilt on Friday for a four-game series. The first pitch on Friday is set for 6:35 p.m. HT, followed by a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1:05 p.m. HT, and will be capped off on Sunday with another 1:05 p.m. start time.