Down to a last strike and out, James Bell hit a two-run single to rally Cal State Bakersfield to a 3-2 baseball victory over Hawaii at Les Murakami Stadium.
By winning the first two games of the series by identical scores, the Roadrunners improved to 12-16 overall and 3-8 in the Big West. The ’Bows fell to 13-12 and 3-5. The series finale begins at 1:05 today.
UH freshman left-handed pitcher Harrison Bodendorf was breezing in relief, inducing the first two outs of the ninth as the ’Bows gripped a 2-1 lead.
But Bodendorf grazed left-swinging Jared Bujanda McConnell with a pitch. Connor Harrison, the ’Bows’ left-handed closer, was summoned to replace Bodendorf.
“He did a great job,” UH coach Rich Hill said of Bodendorf, who allowed three hits in four innings. He got into a couple three-ball counts late in his outing. Connor was fresh and ready to go. It would have been the third time that (Matt) Kurata (and) Bell … would have seen him. Those guys can hurt you. Connor’s got a good changeup, too.”
Kasper hit a high chopper to short for an infield single as Bujanda McConnell scooted safely to second. Then Kurata pulled a hard grounder that third baseman Aaron Ujimori, who had entered as a defensive replacement, could not handle cleanly and then threw too late to first.
“That’s baseball,” Hill said. “You get the Baltimore chop. We get an error, which was a tough play. The ball was smoked right at (Ujimori).”
That brought up Bell, a right-swinging designated hitter who was hitless with an intentional walk in his first four plate appearances. Bell smacked a 2-2 pitch to right to bring home Bujanda McConnell and Kurata to give the Roadrunners a 3-2 lead.
“I was trying to compete and try to find some open green for the baseball, find a hole out there,” Bell said. “I was able to stay above the fastball and shoot it to the right side and give our team a chance.”
Harrison was the third left-handed pitcher the ’Bows employed on Friday night.
“We’ve seen a lot of lefties,” Bell said. “Hawaii has a lot of lefties. We definitely prepared for lefties. It was good to see a similar look all day. I think that definitely helped me in my last at bat to get the ball out there.”
Hill said Harrison “left the fastball up in a two-strike count. Very uncharacteristic of Connor. But it will only make him stronger.”
Gabe Ulloa completed the five-out victory, setting down the ’Bows in order in the ninth.
“I have a lot of respect for that program and how they do things,” CSUB coach Jeremy Beard said of the ’Bows. “They’re an outstanding bunch of competitors. We had to do a lot of different things we hadn’t done before. We had our backup catcher at third base to end the game, a guy who hasn’t played multiple positions, just to get through the ninth. We started stacking lefties in there. That (Bodendorf’s) changeup was so good we wanted to take that out of our life. That was a very good come-from-behind victory and a gritty performance. Both teams battled really hard tonight.”
UH starter Randy Abshier allowed one run in 4 2/3 innings, exiting after his 90th pitch. “It was the third time through (the Roadrunners’ lineup,” Hill said. “Harrison (Bodendorf) was there, ready to take us home. I thought we would score more runs than we did. But that was the thinking (in pulling Abshier).”
The Roadrunners cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third. Second baseman Nick Salas grounded a single up the middle, stole second and came home on the left fielder Kasper’s single to right.
The ’Bows took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. DallasJ Duarte reached on a double down the left-field line and stayed put at second when third baseman Connor Culp mishandled Zach Storbakken’s grounder. Sean Rimmer singled home Duarte for the game’s first run, and Naighel Ali‘i Calderon followed with an RBI single to center.
