RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Powered by four home runs and another strong combined effort on the mound, the Hawai'i baseball team won its fourth straight and seventh in the last eight games with a 9-4 win over Cal Baptist Tuesday.
Dallas Duarte hit a pair of solo home runs while walking four times, while
Matt Wong and
Jacob Igawa each hit a two-run homer to power the Rainbow Warrior offense. On the mound, five UH pitchers teamed up for another solid performance, led by
Connor Harrison, who shut out the Lancers over the final four innings with four strikeouts.
Each team got on the board with a first-inning homer. After Duarte led off the game with a walk, Wong crushed a 1-0 pitch out to dead center field for his fourth homer of the year to put UH on the board. Cal Baptist came back with a solo homer off the bat of Mitchel Simon in the bottom half to cut the Hawai'i lead to 2-1.
The 'Bows (20-13) added three more in the third via the long ball. Duarte led off the frame with a no-doubter out to left field before Igawa blasted an opposite-field two-run shot out to right center, scoring Wong and making it 5-1. Duarte then hit his second homer of the day with a one-out solo shot in the fourth to left field once again, stretching the lead to 6-1.
The Lancers (21-20) got one back with a two-out run in the bottom of the fifth, but UH answered right back with one of their own in the sixth.
Jordan Donahue led off the inning with a single, then moved to second on a walk and third on an error before Igawa cashed him in with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-2.
CBU cut the Hawai'i lead to 7-4 with a pair of runs in the sixth but the 'Bows again responded, this time with two in the eighth to open up a lead again. After a walk, single and hit by pitch loaded the bases with two outs,
Zach Storbakken came up and lined a 1-2 pitch into left field to stretch the Rainbow Warrior lead to 9-4.
Duarte turned in his first career multi-home run game and reached base in all six plate appearances, becoming the first UH player with four walks in a game since Feb. 27, 2021 (Alex Baeza). Wong finished a triple shy of the cycle, going 3-for-6 with a double, homer, two RBIs and three runs scored while Igawa went 2-for-5 with three RBIs and a double. Storbakken continued his recent hot streak, turning in his fourth straight multi-hit game going 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
Harrison earned his seventh save of the year with his four shutout innings, while
Trevor Ichimura worked 1.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts and
Tyler Dyball went two innings with four strikeouts while giving up just one unearned run.
Zach Losey got his first career start and earned the win after throwing 1.1 innings with a strikeout and just a solo homer given up.
The Rainbow Warriors jump back into Big West play with a three-game series at UC Riverside starting Friday at 3:30 p.m. HT.
