The Pac-12 hasn’t just been tough against the Hawaii baseball team in recent years.
It’s been nearly unbeatable.
UH fell to 1-19 in its last 20 games against the top conference on the West Coast with an ugly 11-2 loss to No. 24 Arizona on Friday night.
Bobby Dalbec went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs and Zach Gibbons had five hits and drove in two more runs for the Wildcats (36-20), who handed Hawaii starter Kyle Von Ruden his worst outing of the season.
Von Ruden (7-3) allowed a career-high six runs on a season-high 10 hits in 51⁄3 innings for Hawaii (23-28), which allowed at least 11 runs in a game for the seventh time this season.
“Kyle didn’t have it because they made him not have it,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “That’s the best team we’ve played all year. There’s no question about it.”
JC Cloney (6-3) allowed four hits over six shutout innings and the Wildcats scored in four consecutive innings to put away Hawaii quickly.
Matt LoCoco crushed Cloney’s first pitch of the game over the wall in center on one hop for a leadoff double to the delight of the 2,195 in attendance.
That was pretty much all they had to cheer for the rest of the night.
Hawaii never hit a ball that well the rest of the night, as Cloney settled in and stranded LoCoco on second to end the first.
Arizona quickly made it obvious it wasn’t messing around despite wrapping up Pac-12 play last weekend against Oregon.
Designated hitter JJ Matijevic led off the second inning with a solo blast to right-center for his third homer of the year.
Then in the bottom of the inning, shortstop Louis Boyd made a diving catch on a line drive off the bat of Ethan Lopez, who had a 16-game hitting streak coming in.
The Wildcats poured it on against Von Ruden, tacking on a second run in the fourth inning on Dalbec’s RBI single that scored Matijevic, who finished with four runs scored.
Dalbec struck again in the fifth, doubling home Arizona’s third run in the inning to make it 5-0.
“(Von Ruden) is a sinker/slider guy, and when you’re overthrowing the sinker and rushing and get underneath it, you’re going to elevate it and every ball they hit early was elevated and they hammered it,” Trapasso said. “That’s the best approach I’ve seen in a long, long time.”
Von Ruden recorded two more outs before exiting following Gibbons’ third hit, which drove in a sixth Arizona run.
His season total of 1071⁄3 innings is the highest by a UH pitcher since Steven Wright in 2006, when Hawaii advanced to a regional.
“I’m glad my arm held up,” said Von Ruden, who finishes the year with a 3.44 ERA. “I’m glad I could be a big part (of this season) and 107 innings is definitely the most I’ve ever thrown in my life.”
The ’Bows have a long way to go to get back to that regional status. With the loss to Arizona, UH dropped to 3-11 against the RPI top 50 and needs one win in the next two games to avoid a fourth consecutive 30-loss season.
It got so bad for Hawaii against Arizona that trailing 11-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning with two on and no out, UH had a runner thrown out at third trying to advance on a wild pitch that didn’t get more than a foot away from catcher Cesar Salazar.
Salazar easily threw out Alan Baldwin, who entered the game as a pinch hitter. It cost UH one run and maybe more as Hawaii scored twice after the base-running error.
Josh Rojas beat out a double play at first for a run and LoCoco’s two-out single scored Lopez, who finished 0-for-3 with a walk to snap the longest hitting streak by a UH player since 1999.
Arizona 11, Hawaii 2
| Wildcats |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
| Ramer 2b |
5 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
| Gibbons rf |
6 |
1 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| Rivas lf |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
| Behnke lf |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Aguilar 1b |
5 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Matijevic dh |
5 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| Dalbec 3b |
5 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
| Oliva cf |
5 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Salazar c |
5 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Boyd ss |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
| TOTALS |
44 |
11 |
17 |
10 |
5 |
3 |
|
| rainbow warriors |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
| LoCoco cf |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Weeks 3b |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Sheldon-Collins ss |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Ramirez 1b |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Doi lf |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Baldwin ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Rios c |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Noworyta c |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Lopez rf |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Ka’aua dh |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Sawelson ph |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Rojas 2b |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| TOTALS |
32 |
2 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
| Arizona (36-20) |
010 |
131 |
500 |
— |
11 |
17 |
0 |
| Hawaii (23-28) |
000 |
000 |
200 |
— |
2 |
7 |
1 |
E–Weeks. DP-Arizona 1. LOB–Arizona 12, Hawaii 6. 2B–Dalbec 2, Matijevic; LoCoco. HR–Matijevic. SF-Aguilar. CS-Baldwin.
| Arizona |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
| Cloney (W, 6-3) |
6 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Medel |
2/3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
| Schnabel |
2 1/3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Hawaii |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
| Von Ruden (L, 7-3) |
5 1/3 |
10 |
6 |
6 |
3 |
2 |
| Martin |
1 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
| Pigg |
2 2/3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
WP-Von Ruden. HBP-by Medel (Baldwin)
Umpires–(Plate): Scott Letendre. (First): Mark Jarboe. (Third): Bill Barnes.
T–3:02. A–2,195.
BIG WEST BASEBALL
|
Conference |
Overall |
|
W |
L |
Pct. |
GB |
W |
L |
| CS Fullerton |
16 |
7 |
.696 |
— |
34 |
21 |
| Long Beach St. |
15 |
8 |
.652 |
1 |
36 |
19 |
| UCSB |
13 |
10 |
.565 |
3 |
37 |
17* |
| Hawaii |
12 |
12 |
.500 |
41/2 |
23 |
28 |
| CSUN |
11 |
12 |
.478 |
5 |
33 |
21 |
| Cal Poly |
11 |
12 |
.478 |
5 |
31 |
25 |
| UC Riverside |
11 |
12 |
.478 |
5 |
25 |
29 |
| UC Irvine |
10 |
13 |
.435 |
6 |
30 |
24 |
| UC Davis |
5 |
18 |
.217 |
11 |
17 |
35 |
| *1 tie |
Friday
Arizona 11, Hawaii 2
UC Santa Barbara 2, Cal State Fullerton 1
UC Davis 11, Cal Poly 5
CSUN 8, UC Irvine 2
Saturday
Arizona at Hawaii
UC Riverside at UC Santa Barbara
Cal State Fullerton at Long Beach State
UC Davis at Cal Poly
CSUN at UC Irvine
Sunday
Arizona at Hawaii
