Powered by catcher David Whittle, the UC Riverside baseball team defeated Hawaii 7-4 in Sunday’s finale of a three-game series at the Plex on the UCR campus.
A gathering of 264 saw the Highlanders win two in a row to claim the series and improve to 10-6 overall and 2-1 in the Big West.
By losing a series for the first time in four weekends, the Rainbow Warriors fell to 11-4 and 1-2.
“Their coaches do a good job,” UH coach Rich Hill said of the Highlanders. “This is the best Riverside team I’ve seen in a long time. And they play with a lot of grit and toughness.”
On Saturday, Whittle hit a double to lead off the 13th inning and then scored on Robert Pitts’ walk-off single. On Sunday, Whittle drove in six runs with a bases-clearing double in the sixth for a 3-1 lead and a three-run homer in the seventh. It was Whittle’s second homer of the year.
“He hit an opposite-field double (Saturday) in the 13th,” Hill said. “He’s got some juice.”
UH staring pitcher Liam O’Brien struggled early, but battled his way to pitch four scoreless innings. He has not allowed an earned run 21 1/3 innings this season.
The Highlanders loaded the bases in the first two innings. But O’Brien struck out Manoah Chapman to end the first inning, and he induced Griffin Harrison to line out to second baseman Shunsuke Sakaino to strand three Highlanders in the second.
“Liam kind of walked the tight rope,” Hill said of O’Brien, who allowed three hits and five walks while striking out six of the 20 batters he faced. “He had good velocity. He had really good stuff. He walked a couple guys more, but he was still really good. He was great again. We got through the fifth with a shutout.”
O’Brien exited after allowing a leadoff single to Tyler Gordon in the fifth inning. Cory Ronan replaced O’Brien, and got out of the inning with a flyout, a strikeout, and with catcher Konnor Palmeira throwing out Gordon on an attempted steal of second.
But Ronan surrendered Whittle’s three-run double into the wide gap in left-center. Whittle added a three-run homer in the seventh to extend the lead to 6-1. Robert Pitts’ solo homer in the eighth made it 7-4.
“Everything had to go right on Sunday because we blew it out on Saturday,” said Hill, referencing how Freddy Rodriguez and Isaiah Magdaleno had to come back a day after pitching two and three innings, respectively. “It took a collective effort to get it done and we came out on the wrong side of it today.”
Eight UH pitchers issued nine walks.
“It’s going to be hard to (win) when you do that,” Hill said.
Matthew Flores, who began his college career at UH, pitched a five-hitter over six innings. Flores allowed one earned run. He did not issue a walk.
“We got beat,” Hill said. “They used the long ball. They drew some walks. Timely hitting. They played great defense again, and they had great pitching. No excuses.”
BIG WEST BASEBALL
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UCSB 3 0 1.000 — 13 2
Cal Poly 3 0 1.000 — 9 6
UC Irvine 2 1 .667 1 11 4
UC Riverside 2 1 .667 1 10 6
CS Bakersfield 2 1 .667 1 6 10
UC Davis 0 0 .000 11
2 8 7
Hawaii 1 2 .333 2 11 4
UCSD 1 2 .333 2 9 7
LBSU 1 2 .333 1 6 9
CS Fullerton 0 3 .000 3 4 11
CS Northridge 0 3 .000 3 2 10
Saturday
UC Riverside 4, Hawaii 3, 13 innings
UC Irvine 8, Long Beach State 6
Cal State Bakersfield 10, UC San Diego 3
Cal Poly 11, Cal State Fullerton 8
UC Santa Barbara 11, CS Northridge 9
UC Davis at Creighton, canceled
Sunday
UC Riverside 7, Hawaii 4
Cal State Bakersfield 11, UC San Diego 7
UC Irvine 10, Long Beach State 1
Cal Poly 10, Cal State Fullerton4
UC Santa Barbara10, CS Northridge 9
Nonconference
Creighton 9, UC Davis 3
Creighton 4, UC Davis 0
UC RIVERSIDE 7, HAWAII 4
RAINBOW WARRIORS AB R H BI BB SO LOB
Sakaino 2b 4 1 1 0 0 1 3
Miura cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 1
Salmon ph 1 0 1 1 0 0 0
Zeigler-Namoa 1b
5 1 3 0 0 0 1
Ickes ss 2 1 1 0 0 0 0
Nushida dh 4 0 0 0 0 1 1
Lancaster 3b 4 1 1 0 0 1 0
Quandt rf 4 0 1 0 0 0 2
Nahaku lf 4 0 0 0 0 2 0
Vergel de Dios c
1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Takemoto ph 1 0 1 1 0 1 0
Palmeira pr/c 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Kuni ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 35 4 9 2 1 7 8
HIGHLANDERS AB R H BI BB SO LOB
Pitts cf 5 1 1 1 0 2 1
Gordon 3b 3 0 3 0 1 0 0
Harrison ss 4 0 1 0 0 0 5
Lopez dh 4 1 0 0 1 3 0
Rivas 1b 3 1 0 0 0 0 1
Chapman 2b 4 2 2 0 0 1 3
Nunes rf 1 1 0 0 1 1 0
Badawi rf 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
Whittle c 3 1 2 6 0 1 0
Bergan c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Gibbs dh 3 0 0 0 0 2 0
Totals 30 7 9 7 5 9 10
Hawaii 000 010 021 — 4 9 0
Riverside 000 003 31x — 7 9 1
E – Chapman, M(1). DP – Hawaii 1; UCR 1.
LOB – Hawaii 8; UCR 10. 2B – Salmon, J
(1); Zeigler, B (5); Whittle, D (2). HR – Pitts,
R (1); Whittle, D (2). HBP – Sakaino, S;
Ickes, E 2. SH – Harrison, G (1); Whittle,
D(1). SB – Lancaster, X(6); Quandt, J(5).
CS – Gordon, T (1).
HAWAII IP H R ER BB SO
O’Brien 4 3 0 0 5 6
Ronan (L, 0-1) 1 1 3 3 2 1
Veloz 2
3 1 0 0 0 1
Urban 0 0 0 0 1 0
Thomas 1
3 0 0 0 0 0
Rodriguez 1
⁄3 1 2 2 1 0
Magdaleno 2
⁄3 2 2 2 0 2
Adamson 1 1 0 0 0 0
UC RIVERSIDE IP H R ER BB SO
Flores (W, 2-0) 6 5 1 1 0 4
Martinez 2 3 2 1 1 1
Milliman 1 1 1 1 0 2
WP – Rodriguez, F(3); Martinez, J (2). HBP
– by Flores, M (Ickes, E); by Flores, M (Ickes,
E); by Milliman, N (Sakaino, S). Pitches/
strikes: O’Brien, L 82/47; Ronan, C 26/12;
Veloz, D 10/7; Urban, J 5/1; Thomas, E 5/2;
Rodriguez, F 10/5; Magdaleno, I 10/9; Adamson, C 7/6; Flores, M 90/61; Martinez, J
46/28; Milliman, N 15/10
Umpires—HP: Josh Marshall. 1B: Gary
Gilman. 3B: Nolan Earley. T—3:18. A—264.
