In 24 years of coaching, Mike Trapasso has never seen anything like this.
The Hawaii baseball team lost its 10th straight game for the first time in a single season on Mike Tauchman’s two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning that gave Bradley a 6-5 win Friday at the UNLV Rebel Classic in Las Vegas.
The loss was also the Rainbows’ 12th in a row dating back to last season, surpassing the previous program record of 11 (1958-59).
Amazingly, that wasn’t the worst news of the day for the Rainbows (0-10).
Freshman left-hander Quintin Torres-Costa injured his elbow in pregame batting practice and will not pitch the rest of the weekend.
Torres-Costa met with UNLV doctors, who Trapasso said diagnosed a strain. He said UH would try to fly Torres-Costa home early to get an MRI.
"You’re talking about losing three of your top five pitchers and now you’re thinking, ‘Shoot, what else can go wrong,’ " Trapasso said. "I’ve never been this frustrated by anything in my career, ever."
UH took 10 pitchers on the road and is down to six who are active for today’s game at noon against LMU.
Starters Scott Squier and Connor Little are done for the weekend, and Matt Cooper (0-1) threw 40 pitches against the Braves (3-6), making him unavailable for today.
Cooper’s string of 121⁄3 scoreless innings to start the season ended when Tauchman singled on the first pitch he saw to score Tyler Leffler with the winning run. Leffler finished 3-for-3 and scored twice for the Braves, who had six of their 10 hits go for extra bases.
Kaeo Aliviado went 3-for-5 with a run scored, and Alan Baldwin was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI to lead UH offensively.
The Rainbows outhit the Braves 13-10 but left 11 on base, including the bases loaded in the ninth.
UH matched a season high with five runs, but it could have been a lot more.
Aliviado singled to lead off the game and Baldwin followed with a double, but Aliviado had already been thrown out at second trying to advance on a wild pitch.
UH took a 2-0 lead in the third with four consecutive hits to start the inning off Braves starter Stephen Toma.
Baldwin and Pi‘ikea Kitamura hit RBI singles, but Hawaii left both runners on base after striking out three straight times to end the inning.
The Rainbows trailed 3-2 in the seventh inning when Kalei Hanawahine popped into a double play trying to bunt Tyler Young to second after Young led off with a single.
"We failed to execute in two key situations today and that falls on my shoulders," Trapasso said. "We’re obviously not capable of ripping a bunch of balls in the gap and scoring a lot of runs, so we’re going to play execution baseball to scratch across runs and it will get fixed."
Brady Wilkin gave the Braves a 5-2 lead with a two-run homer off UH starter Little in the bottom of the inning.
Little allowed five runs on eight hits in seven innings with one walk and six strikeouts.
Adam Hurley led of the eighth with a double and scored on a one-out single by Flores. Trevor Podratz pinch-hit for Young and hit a two-run double to tie the score at 5-all.
Baldwin reached on an error to lead off the ninth and advanced to third on a fielder’s choice with two outs. Conner George pinch-hit for Austin Wobrock and drew a walk to load the bases before Flores struck out swinging on a 3-2 pitch.
"We did so many things better today, but at the end we didn’t get the big hit and they did," Trapasso said. "(The players) are frustrated obviously, but kids are way more resilient than coaches. They’re going to bounce back and get after it and we’ll get through this."
Senior right-hander Corey MacDonald (0-1, 5.68 ERA) will get the start today.
