The Hawaii baseball team broke out new black caps and then broke away to Friday’s 17-5 rout of UC Riverside at the Riverside Sports Complex on the UCR campus.
“That’s a Friday night win on the road in the Big West,” UH coach Rich Hill said of the Rainbow Warriors’ opener of Big West play and a three-game series against the Highlanders. “Those are tough to come by.”
Shortstop Elijah Ickes and first baseman Ben Zeigler-Namoa each drove in four runs to fuel the Rainbow Warriors’ 15-hit attack. Second baseman Shunsuke Sakaino reached base on all six plate appearances, scoring six runs. Sakaino had four hits, drew two walks, and make an agile stop of a grounder in the hole between first and second.
“There are things you nit-pick about, things that we obviously need to improve up in the first game on the road, but I focus on the positive,” Hill said. “What about Shunsuke? Man, that was an amazing performance. That’s 4-for-4 with six runs scored.
The ’Bows also drew 12 walks against eight Highlander hurlers, who unleashed six wild pitches.
Ickes’ two-run home run, his first of the season, gave the ’Bows a 4-3 lead in the third inning.
The Highlanders went ahead 5-4 with two runs in the bottom of the third. But Ickes and Zeigler-Namoa each had two-run singles in the fourth for an 8-5 lead the ’Bows would not relinquish.
The ’Bows added five runs in the fifth inning. Jared Quandt pulled a drive into the right-field corner for a leadoff triple. Two outs later, catcher Hunter Faildo, who entered as a pinch runner an inning earlier, entered the batter’s box. Faildo, who was hitting .071 (1-for-14) in eight games, singled to right to bring home Quandt and extend the ’Bows’ lead to 9-5. Later, Sakaino and Zeigler-Namoa had RBI singles, Xaige Lancaster drew a bases-loaded walk, and Ickes scored on a wild pitch.
“Hunter Faildo started that whole thing with that two-out base hit,” Hill said. “He’s been struggling. He had a big catcher’s assist when he threw out a guy at second (in the fourth inning). A lot of guys stepped up. That was awesome to see.”
Faildo went 2-for-3 and scored two runs.
Sebastian Gonzalez struggled in his fourth start, yielding six hits and five runs — four of them earned — in two innings.
But right-handed freshman Cooper Walls, who replaced Gonzalez with no outs in the third, struck out two and induced an inning-ending groundout to strand three Highlanders. Walls pitched four scoreless innings.
Hill praised Walls for “coming in a tough situation as a freshman, and getting out of that jam, and extending us.”
Walls, Charlie Adamson, Danny Veloz and Kyle Dobyns did not allow an earned run in a combined seven innings.
The ’Bows turned double plays to escape bases-loaded jams in the scoreless sixth and seventh innings. “Always a good thing,” Hill said.
The ’Bows improved to 11-2 overall, matching their best start since 2021. The series continues with games today and Sunday, both starting at 10 a.m. Hawaii time.
“We’ve got a couple day games to get a little more toasty,” Hill said, referencing Friday’s chilly weather.
