HONOLULU – The Hawai'i baseball team fell into an early hole and couldn't recover in an 8-3 loss to Wright State in Friday's season opener at Les Murakami Stadium.
 
Raiders starting pitcher Jake Shirk worked six scoreless innings with six strikeouts while # relievers combined to shut down the Rainbow Warriors (0-1) over the final three innings to preserve the shutout.
 
The Raiders (1-0) scored a pair of runs each in the first two innings to build a 4-0 lead. After a walk to start the game, Justin Greenwell hit a two-run homer to center field to make it 2-0. Two more came across in the second inning after an RBI double and a fielder's choice.
 
Wright State tacked on four more runs in the top of the eighth to stretch its lead to 8-0, however the 'Bows scored three unanswered to end the game.
 
UH pushed across its first run of the game in the bottom of the inning, as freshman Tobey Jackson reached on a pinch-hit infield single before coming around to score on a wild pitch. The 'Bows then added two more in the ninth on RBI fielder's choices to make it 8-3.
 
Trevor Ichimura turned in a strong outing in relief of starter Harry Gustin, throwing 3.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen with two strikeouts and no walks. Jordan Donahue came up with the only two hits of the night for Hawai'i, going 2-for-3 for his 15th career multi-hit game.
 
For the second-straight year the starting lineup had a strong local flavor to it, as eight of nine starting position players are from Hawai'i. In both years under head coach Rich Hill, the Rainbow Warriors have had eight local players among its starting nine.
 
The two teams will play a doubleheader beginning at 1:05 p.m. Saturday. Game one is scheduled to go seven innings while game two will start 45 minutes after the end of game one and will be nine innings.