FULLERTON, Calif. – For the third time in the last five days, the Hawai'i baseball team found its backs against the wall, and for the third time it came through in resounding fashion. The 'Bows kept their 2025 season alive Friday with a 16-4 rout of Cal State Fullerton in an elimination game at the Big West Championship.
 
The Rainbow Warriors will now take on Cal Poly in another elimination game Saturday at 12 p.m. HT for the right to take on UC Irvine in the title game. The winner of tomorrow's UH-Cal Poly game will have to beat the Anteaters twice to claim the title.
 
Hawai'i banged out a season-high 19 hits while scoring 11 runs in the final three innings to pull away from the host Titans. Three UH pitchers combined to keep the Fullerton bats at bay, holding them to four runs while working around nine hits.
 
The Titans got the scoring started with a run in the first inning, but the Rainbow Warriors answered loudly in the top of the second with three runs to vault in front. After Elijah Ickes led off the inning with a triple, Jared Quandt cashed him in with a base knock to tie it up.
 
Hunter Faildo beat out an infield single with two outs for the first of his three hits to give Hawai'i the lead and make it 2-1, and Matthew Miura followed one batter later with an RBI single to stretch the lead to 3-1.
 
Miura, who finished the night 4-for-6 with three RBIs, struck again in the top of the fourth with another run-scoring single and Kamana Nahaku made it 5-1 with a fifth-inning knock.
 
After Fullerton cut into the lead with a run in the sixth, UH came back with five in the top of the seventh to break it open. Donahue got the scoring started with a two-run shot out to right field – his third homer in the last six days – to make it 7-2. Nahaku made it back-to-back jacks with a solo shot off the scoreboard - his 10th of the season - and Shunsuke Sakaino capped off the big frame with a two-run double that landed on the left field line to make it 10-2.
 
The Titans cut into the lead with two runs in the seventh, but Hawai'i broke it wide open with six more in the ninth to give the game its final score.
 
Isaiah Magdaleno earned another multi-inning save, this time getting the final 11 outs while striking out three. Cory Ronan got his second win of the weekend pitching 1.1 frames in relief of starter Sebastian Gonzalez who went four innings and gave up just one first-inning run.
 
UH also reached the 35-win mark on the season, making it the first time that the 'Bows have won 35 games in back-to-back seasons since 1991-92. The 72 wins over the last two seasons are also the most wins in a two-year stretch for the program since winning 79 from 2006-07.