HONOLULU – The Hawai'i baseball team began a crucial series against UC Irvine by winning in emphatic fashion, exploding for its best offensive output of the year in a 14-6 victory in the series opener on Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.
On a wet and rainy day in Mānoa, the Rainbow Warriors (17-13, 7-9 Big West) came out scorching hot at the plate to snap a nine-game losing streak to the Anteaters by banging out a season-high 16 hits to produce a season-best in runs.
Ben Zeigler-Namoa paced the offensive onslaught, finishing 3-for-4 with two runs scored, two doubles, a sacrifice fly, and a season-high five RBIs. With the massive performance, the graduate senior extended his hitting streak to nine games, continuing a scorching stretch at the plate.
Kody Watanabe and
Jake Redding also collected three hits apiece. Watanabe drove in three runs and scored twice, while Redding recorded a double and a triple to fuel the balanced attack.
After three scoreless innings, the 'Bows broke the game open in the fourth. Capitalizing on a pair of Anteater errors, Hawai'i plated six unearned runs against UC Irvine starter Trevor Hansen, who took the loss despite striking out six.
Draven Nushida beat out a two-out infield single to plate the first run, while another came around to score via error on the play.
One batter later, Watanabe delivered a two-run single and three batters later Zeigler-Namoa plated two more with a double to right field to make it 6-0.
The Rainbow Warriors kept their foot on the gas in the fifth, pushing across four more runs to build a commanding 10-0 advantage.
Gabe Wright started the scoring in the inning with a pinch-hit, RBI triple down the left field line and Watanabe plated Wright with a suicide squeeze bunt to make it 8-0.
Kamana Nahaku ripped a double into the left field corner to add another run and Zeigler-Namoa delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 10-0 after five.
After UCI got on the board in the sixth, the Rainbow Warriors pulled away for good with another four-run surge in the seventh inning, highlighted by another Zeigler-Namoa two-run double to make it 14-3.
On the mound, Friday night starter
Isaiah Magdaleno labored with his command but still kept the Anteaters off the board. The right-hander walked a career-high seven batters over four innings on 91 pitches, but did not yield a single hit while striking out two.
Tsubasa Tomii (2-0) earned the victory in relief, entering a jam in the sixth inning and restoring order. Tomii tossed 1.1 hitless innings to extinguish the threat, dropping his season ERA to a spectacular 1.00
The two teams will play game two of the series Saturday night at 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.
