HONOLULU – Austin Machado delivered a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning to lead the Hawai'i baseball team to a 4-3 win over conference leader Cal Poly in the series opener Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.
After
Naighel Ali'i Calderon led off the ninth with an opposite field single, a sacrifice bunt fielder's choice and intentional walk loaded the bases with no outs for Machado. The junior then delivered UH's second walk-off victory of the season lifting a fly ball to fairly deep center field, more than enough to score the speedy Calderon from third and secure the win.
The Rainbow Warriors took the lead early with a run in the first inning. After
Dallas Duarte doubled and Machado singled with one out,
Matthew Miura legged out a hot shot that ricocheted off the pitcher to plate Duarte and make it 1-0.
Cal Poly would take the lead with three runs in the fourth inning, but the 'Bows came right back with two in the bottom half to tie it up.
Elijah Ickes came through with a big one-out double down the right field line to plate a pair of runs to knot things up at three – where it would stay until the bottom of the ninth.
Sebastian Gonzalez delivered yet another strong outing on the mound, working five innings in relief and striking out four. Despite entering the game and allowing three runs in the fourth inning, the freshman responded in a big way working three up, three down innings in the fifth, seventh and eighth while working out of bases-loaded jam in the sixth to keep the Mustangs off the board.
Danny Veloz got the win by pitching a scoreless ninth while
Harrison Bodendorf 1.2 scoreless frames in a start and
Alex Giroux followed him with 1.1 shutout frames.
Jordan Donahue went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 18 games – the longest by a UH player since Neal Honma hit safely in 19 straight between the end of the 1997 season and start of the 1998 season. The streak is also the fourth-longest in program history.
The Rainbow Warriors and Mustangs continue their three-game series Saturday at 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.
