In a baseball game promoted as “Star Wars Night,” Hawaii left-hander Randy Abshier was the force.
Abshier pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing his only hit with two outs in the fifth inning, in the Rainbow Warriors’ 5-0 victory over Cal State Northridge at Les Murakami Stadium.
A crowd of 3,059 saw the ’Bows win the first two of this three-game series to improve to 28-15 overall and 11-9 in the Big West. They take a seven-game winning streak into today’s series finale. The Matadors fell to 28-16 and 14-6.
CSUN arrived in Honolulu on Thursday with nine consecutive victories and an average of 7.6 runs per game. But UH reliever Alex Giroux pitched five perfect innings in a 3-2 victory on Friday, and Abshier was dominant on Saturday night.
“He was great,” UH coach Rich Hill said of Abshier. “Early on, he had his fastball working. All three pitches were good. As it got later in the game, he relied on his off-speed stuff. He was a true pitcher tonight in every sense of the word. I was happy for him.”
Abshier walked three, struck out five and found the escape hatch both times the Matadors were in scoring position in the first seven innings.
In the first inning, CSUN’s Jakob Simons drew a one-out walk and then stole second. But Abshier struck out Kevin Fitzer and coaxed Jarren Sanderson to ground out. In the sixth, Conner Stewart reached on third baseman Elijah Ickes’ error and, one out later, moved to second when Simons walked. But Abshier induced Fitzer to fly out to left and Sanderson to ground out.
Abshier was cognizant of his no-hitter for 4 2/3 innings.
“Of course, everybody knows,” said Abshier, who did not adhere to the don’t-acknowledge-it superstition of a potential no-hitter. “I’m not scared of it. When that happens, that’s outside your control. They didn’t hit the ball very well.”
Abshier added: “Honestly, I had one pitch all night. It was a good ol’ slider. I was able to throw it in hitter counts. Their memo is if they got on, they were going to run. I felt I held them well on the bases.”
Danny Veloz, who replaced Abshier at the start of the eighth inning, benefited from a double play in working out of a two-on, no-out jam. But in the ninth, the Matadors loaded the bases with two outs. Hill then summoned left-hander Connor Harrison.
“I was at the end of the bench, talking to (Tyler) Dyball, and they told me to get hot (in the bullpen),” Harrison said. “I threw in the eighth already, so I was already pretty loose. With two lefties coming up, ‘Oh, OK, maybe they’re going to go to me here,’ and they did for that last out.”
Shunsuke Sakaino, a left-swinging second baseman, fouled off Harrison’s first three pitches.
“He was on the fastball, so I went slider there,” Harrison said. “I hung it a little bit, not my best pitch, obviously, but it did the job done and got a weak fly ball to left. We’ll take it.”
Hill said: “That 27th out is hard to get in college baseball. It was just a great win.”
The ’Bows went on the attack early, producing three consecutive hits to open the first inning. Austin Machado pulled a double to right to bring home Jordan Donahue from second base for a 1-0 lead. One out later, DallasJ Duarte’s groundout to second scored Jake Tsukada with the ’Bows’ second run.
In the UH fourth, Duarte singled and went to third on Matthew Miura’s single to right. Duarte scored when Ben Zeigler-Namoa grounded into a double play.
The ’Bows added two runs in the seventh against four CSUN pitchers. Ickes’ RBI single brought home Miura. Machado drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 5-0.
BIG WEST BASEBALL
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UCSB 16 4 .800 — 30 12
UC Irvine 15 5 .750 1 34 9
Cal Poly 16 7 .696 11
2 27 17
CS Northridge 14 7 .667 21
2 28 17
Hawaii 12 9 .571 41
2 29 15
UCSD 13 10 .565 5 26 18
!-LBSU 8 12 .400 8 21 21
CS Bakersfield 7 16 .304 91
2 13 31
UC Davis 6 14 .300 10 20 24
CS Fullerton 5 16 .238111
2 14 29
UC Riverside 4 16 .200 12 13 28
!-does not include one tie; x-nonconference
Saturday
UC Irvine 4, Cal Poly 3, 10 inn.
Long Beach State 9, UC Davis 6
UC Santa Barbara 6, UC San Diego 3
x-UCLA 4, Cal State Fullerton 1
UC Riverside 5, Cal State Bakersfield 4
Hawaii 5, CS Northridge 0
Today
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Riverside
Long Beach State at UC Davis
Cal Poly at UC Irvine
UC San Diego at UC Santa Barbara
x-Cal State Fullerton at UCLA
CS Northridge at Hawaii
HAWAII 3, CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE 2
MATADORS AB R H BI BB SO
Neighbors 3b 4 0 0 0 0 0
Simons cf 2 0 0 0 2 0
Fitzer dh 3 0 1 0 1 1
Sanderson lf 4 0 0 0 0 0
Barraza 1b 3 0 0 0 0 0
Linberg ph 1 0 0 0 0 0
Sojka rf 3 0 0 0 0 2
Wilkinson c 0 0 0 0 1 0
Le ss 3 0 1 0 0 0
Gonzalez ph 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sakaino 2b 4 0 1 0 0 2
Stewart c 2 0 0 0 0 0
Gauna ph/rf 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 29 0 3 0 4 5
RAINBOW WARRIORS AB R H BI BB SO
J. Donahue ss 4 1 1 0 0 0
Tsukada 2b 3 1 1 0 1 1
Machado c 3 0 1 2 1 2
K. Donahue 1b 4 0 1 0 0 1
Duarte dh 4 1 1 1 0 0
Miura cf 4 1 2 0 0 1
Zeigler-Namoa lf 4 0 1 0 0 0
Nahaku pr/lf 0 0 0 0 0 0
Calderon rf 3 1 0 0 0 1
Ickes 3b 3 0 2 1 0 0
TOTALS3 32 5 10 4 2 6
CSUN (28-16, 14-6) 000 000 000 — 0 3 0
Hawaii (28-15, 11-9) 200 100 20x — 5 10 1
E–Ickes. DP–CSUN 2, Hawaii 1. LOB–
CSUN 8, Hawaii 6. 2B–Machado. HBP–
Gonzalez, Gauna; Calderon. SB–Simons.
CS–Fitzer.
CS NORTHRIDGE IP H R ER BB SO
Halamicek 62
3 8 4 4 0 4
Hernandez 1
3 1 0 0 0 0
Martinez 0 0 0 0 2 0
Ignaciak 11
3 1 0 0 0 2
HAWAII IP H R ER BB SO
Abshier (W, 3-4) 7 1 0 0 3 5
Veloz 12
3 2 0 0 1 0
Harrison (S, 2) 1
3 0 0 0 0 0
HBP–by Halamicek (Calderon); by Veloz
(Gauna); by Veloz (Gonzalez).
Umpires—(Plate): Travis Roberts. (First):
Rob McKinley. (Second): Gary Gilman.
(Third): Jeff Cluff. T—2:41. A–3,059.
HAWAII BASEBALL REPORT
Statistics of players with Hawaii ties in professional baseball through Friday’s games. Players who are on the injured or suspended list and whose stats have not changed since last week are not listed.:
MAJOR LEAGUE
Player (Hawaii connection), Team), League AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG.
Josh Rojas (UH), Seattle, American 71 11 24 3 1 3 6 .338
Isiah Kiner-Falefa (Mid-Pacific), Toronto, American 87 8 22 3 1 1 6 .253
Pitcher (Hawaii connection), Team, League G IP H ER BB K W-L ERA
Kirby Yates (Kauai), Texas, American 11 12 3 0 3 14 2-0 0.00
Cade Smith (Hawaii), Cleveland, American 15 142
⁄3 10 4 6 22 1-0 2.45
CLASS AAA
Player (Hawaii connection), Team (franchise) AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG.
Kolten Wong (Kamehameha-Hawaii/UH), Reno (Diamondbacks) 62 7 16 3 0 1 9 .258
Pitcher (Hawaii connection), Team (franchise) G IP H ER BB K W-L ERA
Rico Garcia (Saint Louis/HPU), Rochester (Washington) 9 13 7 3 9 18 4-0 2.00
Edgar Barclay (St. Joseph), Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Yankees) 6 291
3 24 10 16 32 3-1 3.07
CLASS AA
Player (Hawaii connection), Team (franchise) AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG.
Wyatt Young (Mid-Pacific), Binghamton (Mets) 54 12 14 1 0 2 6 .259
Shane Sasaki (‘Iolani), Pensacola (Marlins) 71 9 18 4 0 0 0 .254
Kala‘i Rosario (Waiakea), Wichita (Twins) 87 8 20 7 1 2 15 .230
Pitcher (Hawaii connection), Team (franchise) G IP H ER BB K W-L ERA
Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa (Baldwin), Frisco (Rangers) 8 10 4 0 3 12 0-0 0.00
Aaron Davenport (Hawaii), Akron (Guardians) 5 251
3 20 6 12 21 2-0 2.13
Dylan Spain (Saint Louis/UH Hilo), Hartford (Rockies) 4 51
3 9 3 3 3 0-1 5.06
Carter Loewen (UH), San Antonio (Padres) 6 7 8 4 6 9 1-1 5.14
HIGH CLASS A
Pitcher (Hawaii connection), Team (franchise) G IP H ER BB K W-L ERA
Hunter Breault (Kamehameha), Lansing (A’s) 8 91
3 12 7 5 10 3-1 6.75
Blaze Pontes (Kamehameha/UH), Lansing (A’s) 5 16 24 14 4 4 0-2 7.88
CLASS A
Player (Hawaii connection), Team (franchise) AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG.
Maui Ahuna (Hilo), San Jose (Giants) 49 4 11 1 0 0 4 .224
Devin Saltiban (Hilo), Clearwater (Phillies) 60 10 12 0 0 2 5 .200
Pitcher (Hawaii connection), Team (franchise) G IP H ER BB K W-L ERA
Harry Gustin (UH), Lake Elsinore (Padres) 5 12 20 11 7 9 0-2 8.25
PARTNER LEAGUES
Player (Hawaii connection), Team, League AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG.
Kobe Kato (Aiea), York, Atlantic 30 6 6 2 0 2 4 .200
Pitcher (Hawaii connection), Team (franchise), League G IP H ER BB K W-L ERA
Ian Kahaloa (Campbell), Southern Maryland, Atlantic 2 8 7 7 11 9 0-1 10.38
>> The Reno Aces placed second baseman Kolten Wong (Kamehameha-Hawaii/UH) on the seven-day injured list on Friday.
>> Clearwater Threshers shortstop Devin Saltiban (Hilo) hit his first two home runs of the season —
both solo shots — on April 28 in a 5-3 win over the Bradenton Marauders.
>> Bradenton Marauders third baseman Kalae Harrison (Punahou) was activated off the injured list on
April 27.
———
Compiled by Sjarif Goldstein, Star-Advertiser
