One run isn’t going to suffice if the Hawaii baseball team wants to start winning games this season.
The Rainbows were held to a single run or less for the eighth time in 15 games as Tyler Olson outdueled Corey MacDonald in Gonzaga’s 3-1 victory on Saturday night in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,932.
The Rainbows had just four hits and scored only once for the third consecutive game to fall to 1-14 overall.
Hawaii has scored more than two runs in just three out of 10 games at home and lowered its team batting average to .216.
"That’s been the Achilles heel from the first game of the season and we know that," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said.
The bottom two guys in Gonzaga’s order — Brock Slavin and Cabe Reiten — combined to go 4-for-7 and score twice for the Bulldogs (8-4-1).
Olson (2-1) threw 114 pitches for his second complete game of the year to extend the Zags’ streak to five straight games without a loss.
"We couldn’t ask for anything more (from Olson) because their guy did a good job, too," Gonzaga coach Mark Machtolf said. "Runs were hard to come by."
Olson threw seven innings of one-run ball in a win over Hawaii last year, and struck out six and walked two to go the distance on Saturday night for the fourth time in the last two seasons.
The 6-foot-3 left-hander was selected in the 17th round of last year’s MLB First-Year Player Draft but decided to return to school for his senior season.
"As far as one night from the next, I thought (Olson) had us way more off-stride than (Marco) Gonzales did," Trapasso said. "He was that good."
Gonzales, who allowed one run on four hits in eight innings on Friday, started at first base and was 0-for-2 with a walk, driving in an insurance run on a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Slavin and Reiten scored in the third inning as Gonzaga took advantage of two mistakes in center field by junior Conner George.
George, an infielder who moved to the outfield in the offseason, made his fourth start in center. Reiten led off with a double in the gap and took third as George bobbled the ball trying to field it cleanly.
Slavin drove in Reiten with a base hit and promptly stole second. Mitchell Gunsolus followed with a base hit up the middle and took second as George threw the ball halfway between second and the plate.
George was lifted for a pinch hitter an inning later.
"You just can’t do those things, particularly when we have no margin for error," Trapasso said. "That’s why I put Kalei (Hanawahine) in."
Hawaii got one back in the bottom of the inning as Austin Wobrock tripled to right and scored on a weak grounder to third by Kaeo Aliviado.
MacDonald worked into the seventh inning for the third consecutive start, leaving after 109 pitches.
He gave up two runs on six hits in 62⁄3 innings with two walks and two strikeouts to lower his ERA to 3.49.
"There’s no question that through this whole thing with the pitching injuries, if we’re swinging the bats better we’ve got some wins," Trapasso said. "That’s the thing we’ve got to get better at, but I see light at the end of the tunnel if we keep the approach we had tonight."
Hawaii went hitless in three at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Sophomore Scott Squier (0-2, 2.60 ERA) will start the third game of the series opposite Gonzaga’s Derek Callahan (1-0, 4.05) today at 1:05 p.m.
Gonzaga 3, Hawaii 1
GONZAGA |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
HAWAII |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
Gunsolus 3b |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Aliviado rf |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Halcomb ss |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Real 2b |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Eslick dh |
3 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
Hurley lf |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Lebrun rf |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Kitamura 3b |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Benjamin pr |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Conner cf |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Gonzales 1b |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Hanawahine ph |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Forbes c |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Baldwin ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Moon cf |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Brewster dh |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Bonczyk cf |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Kleman 1b |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Reiten 2b |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
Young c |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Slavin lf |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
Podratz ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
Wobrock ss |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
Kamoe ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
Duval 1b |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Totals |
33 |
3 |
9 |
3 |
Totals |
30 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
GONZAGA (8-4-1) |
|
002 |
000 |
010 |
|
3 |
9 |
1 |
HAWAII (1-14) |
|
001 |
000 |
000 |
— |
1 |
4 |
1 |
E—Reiten, George. DP—Gonzaga 1. LOB—Gonzaga 10, Hawaii 4. 2B—Lebrun, Reiten. 3B—Wobrock. SH—Gunsolus, Slavin. SF—Gonzales. SB—Slavin. CS—Kitamura.
GONZAGA |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
Olson (W, 2-1) |
9 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
6 |
HAWAII |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
MacDonald (L, 1-2) |
62⁄3 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Cooper |
11⁄3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Flinn |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
WP—Olson, MacDonald, Cooper. Umpires—Dwayne Finley (plate), Allen Williams (first), Rickey Scarbery (third). T—2:07. A—2,932.