Shunsuke Sakaino was on the wrong end of a one-run game and was swept while playing for Cal State Northridge against Hawaii last season.
It was enough to make him decide he would rather be on the winning side of those close games.
For the second straight night to start the 2025 season, the Rainbow Warriors walked off against Marshall. This time it was with Sakaino delivering the game-winning hit through the left side of the infield, scoring Ben Zeigler-Namoa and giving Hawaii a 7-6 victory and a doubleheader sweep of the Thundering Herd on Saturday.
A Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,042 saw all four batters reach base in the bottom of the ninth after Hawaii erased a 6-3 deficit going into the bottom of the seventh inning.
Zeigler-Namoa and Xaige Lancaster reached base on close plays at first base, ruled safe for infield hits.
Marshall coach Greg Beals went out to argue the first safe call and then was ejected from the game after protesting the second, which brought Sakaino to the plate with the winning run on third.
Sakaino took a strike before poking a ball past a diving shortstop and third baseman, resulting in a collection of Hawaii players chasing a teammate into the outfield to celebrate a second one-run win in as many nights.
“They did that last year and I was on the opposite side of the dugout and I saw what they had and it’s been pretty incredible to join them and have that team chemistry,” said Sakaino, who started more than 100 games at CSUN and was All-Big West honorable mention as a sophomore. “I picked up my pitch as soon as possible and put my bat on the ball. That’s it.”
Hawaii (3-0), which won the opening game of the doubleheader 6-2, extended its home winning streak to 14 games dating back to last season.
Draven Nushida, a junior transfer from Cal State Fullerton, delivered the walk-off hit in Friday’s opener, and another Big West transfer got the hero treatment a night later.
“Sakaino is from my hometown, Rancho Bernardo, right there, the same high school my kids went to, and I thought we screwed up at USD not recruiting him harder,” Hawaii coach Rich Hill said of his time at the University of San Diego. “We were lucky enough to get him to come to Hawaii and same thing with Draven. I screwed up when I first got here, the kid out of Mid-Pac, I’ve always liked his swing, but he’s really impressed me.”
Sakaino finished 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and two RBIs and Matthew Miura had three hits.
Zacary Tenn pitched a scoreless top of the ninth to earn the win.
Hawaii trailed 6-3 after four innings as starter Cory Ronan and reliever Cooper Walls were tagged for 10 hits.
Walls, who hit a batter with his first pitch in a UH uniform, allowed three straight hits after that before striking out Jackson Halter for his first out.
He allowed only two hits over the next three innings and Hawaii never gave up another run.
“As a freshman we think very highly of him. We see him as a future ace, and as a freshman, pitching in this environment at the Les, it’s not California,” Hill said with a laugh. “He had a little time to settle down, that’s part of his growth process, but he kept us in the game.”
Nushida singled home Sakaino with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh and Miura scored Jared Quandt on a groundout to make it 6-5.
Sakaino walked with one out in the eighth and stole second before Quandt singled back up the middle to score Sakaino to tie the game up.
Hawaii left the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth innings.
Sophomore Elijah Ickes, who dropped a bunt in the ninth inning that stayed fair, resulting in his third hit, is off to a hot start of the season batting .500 (7-for-14).
“I feel like there is a lot of new guys on this team, and I feel like we were able to build that bond really quickly throughout the fall and I feel like that is one of the most important things,” Ickes said. “We already have that trust knowing the next person behind us can do the job if we do ours, and that’s what we’ve did the last two days.”
Hawaii will go for the series sweep today at 1:05 p.m.
