Today’s plane ride home got a little bit better for the Hawaii baseball team.
The Rainbows salvaged a game to end their 11-day road trip, snapping a seven-game losing streak with a 7-6 victory over Cal Poly on Sunday afternoon at Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Pi‘ikea Kitamura set a career high with four hits, and Andre Real finished a home run shy of the cycle for the Rainbows (8-24, 3-6 Big West), who avoided getting swept in a series for the fourth time this season.
Hawaii dropped Cal Poly (24-9, 6-3), ranked No. 20 by Collegiate Baseball, into a three-way tie for second place in the Big West by winning for just the second time in 12 games away from home this season.
"Hopefully this is something we can build on," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said over the phone Sunday. "If we get 13 hits every game, I like our chances."
After tossing seven innings of two-hit ball against No. 17 UCLA on Tuesday, sophomore southpaw Scott Squier picked up his first collegiate save.
Hawaii led 7-5 in the eighth when the Mustangs led off with a single and a double off starter Corey MacDonald to put the tying run on base.
Squier, pitching out of the bullpen for just the second time this season, gave up a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 7-6 but got out of the inning with the lead still intact.
He hit Denver Chavez with a pitch with two outs in the ninth and Max Duval misplayed a foul pop-up for what would have been the third out before Squier got Michael Hoo to ground out to end the game.
"I’m sitting in the dugout and you can’t even get frustrated with the way things have gone this year because it’s like, of course he’s going to drop it," Trapasso said. "Fortunately two pitches later Scotty threw a good slider and got the ground ball."
After scoring only eight runs in the first six games of the road trip, Hawaii busted out for seven in the first four innings Sunday.
The Rainbows roughed up Cal Poly starter Bryan Granger (3-4) for four runs on seven hits in 12⁄3 innings.
Marc Flores hit a two-out RBI double in the first and five straight Rainbows reached base with two outs in the second to chase Granger.
Real delivered a two-run triple to right-center and Kitamura scored Real with a single off Granger’s glove to make it 4-0 Hawaii.
After Cal Poly scored four runs in the bottom of the third, Real led off the fourth with a double and Kitamura and Conner George had RBI singles in the inning to push the lead up to 7-4.
"Andre really had a great game and really kind of reintroduced himself with the game he had today," Trapasso said, "I think he’s capable of continuing that."
UH returns home to face Cal State Northridge (19-17, 5-4) for three games starting on Friday.
