SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Hawai'i baseball team again fell victim to a big inning early on as UC Santa Barbara used a six-run first inning to finish a sweep of the Rainbow Warriors with a 6-2 win Sunday.
The Gauchos did all of their damage in the first inning, scoring six runs off UH starter
Danny Veloz. After a walk and two hit by pitches loaded the bases, a two-run single made it 2-0. Veloz got the next batter to strike out, but UCSB's Justin Trimble smacked a grand slam out to right center one batter later to make it 6-0.
From there, Hawai'i reliever
Sebastian Gonzalez quieted the UCSB bats with stellar outing. The freshman entered with two outs in the second inning and pitched the final 6.1 frames, allowing just two hits while striking out five and walking none. Gonzalez at one point retired 12 straight batters from the fourth through eighth innings and kept the 'Bows in the game with his career-long outing.
UH started to chip away at the deficit in the middle innings but could never put together a real threat. After two runners reached with one out in the fourth, a
Matthew Miura RBI groundout got Hawai'i on the board before
Jordan Donahue made it 6-2 with a run-scoring single in the fifth. However, the 'Bows only got one baserunner the rest of the game from that point including three up, three down innings in the sixth, seventh and eighth.
Jordan Donahue extended his hitting streak to 16 games with his RBI single, marking the longest hitting streak by a Rainbow Warrior since 2018 when Kekai Rios hit safely in 17 straight games from Mar. 23-Apr. 21.
Kyson Donahue continued his recent hot streak, turning in his third multi-hit game in the last four after finishing 2-for-4.
UH managed just five hits off UCSB pitching while Rainbow Warrior pitching limited the Gauchos to just five hits. It marked the first time all year that Hawai'i lost a game when either out-hitting or tying an opponent in hits. It also marked the first time since May 14-16, 2021 at CSUN that UH was swept in a three-game road series.
The Rainbow Warriors return home to host Chaminade on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.
