The Hawaii baseball team’s vision quest was fulfilled.
Left fielder Kamana Nahaku smacked three home runs, including a two-run shot in a 10-run ninth inning, as the Rainbow Warriors overcame a six-run deficit to defeat Cal State Northridge 14-10 Sunday at Hiegert Field on the CSUN campus.
“There are no words,” UH coach Rich Hill said of the ninth-inning surge. “There are no adjectives. The toughness and resilience of this team has shown all year. … The mentality that they just don’t flinch.”
Nahaku helped lead the way, tying a UH record for home runs in a game. The ’Bows’ six homers also was a single-game record.
“We do a lot of visualization on this team,” said Nahaku, who went 4-for-4. “Whenever we do those, I obviously visualize the best swing. And I’m happy I got to make my visualizing a reality. … It was a special moment, and I’m happy I helped our team win this weekend.”
Despite Nahaku’s solo home runs in the fifth and seventh innings to close UH to 7-4, the Matadors appeared to move out of reach with a three-run eighth. CSUN catcher Xavier Rios’ second homer of the game, which expanded the Matadors’ lead to 10-4, appeared to be the dagger.
But the ’Bows were not ready to concede this duel.
“Just give it to the next guy,” second baseman Shunsuke Sakaino said of the ’Bows’ one-batter-at-a-time approach. “I mean, we obviously can’t tie it with one swing. We had to chip away and score one by one.”
Ben Zeigler-Namoa singled to center, Jared Quandt walked and Nahaku was struck by a pitch from reliever Gabriel Hernandez to load the bases with no outs in the ninth. Draven Nushida then drilled a drive over the right-field fence for a grand slam, cutting the deficit to 10-8.
One out and one relief pitcher later, pinch hitter Aidan Kuni drew a walk. Then Sakaino hit an opposite-field homer to left center to tie it at 10.
“It was pretty cool,” said Sakaino, who played at CSUN for three season before transferring to UH last summer. “It was against my former team. I had a little bit of emotion behind it.”
Shortstop Jordan Donahue singled, then scored the go-ahead run on Matthew Miura’s double into the right-field corner. Miura came home on Quandt’s run-scoring single. Nahaku followed with a two-run homer.
“Unbelievable,” Sakaino said of Nahaku, who hit five homers in the three-game series. “Amazing job from him. … The No. 1 thing is we got the win. Just stringing (the hits and walks), giving the baton (to the next batter) and coming back at the end.”
Hill said: “There’s no clock in baseball. We’re going to grind out at bats, play the game pitch by pitch. We just have a lot of faith in each other that something like this can happen, especially in a ballpark like that. … It’s not just one guy. It’s a collection of some guys who are super tough and assistant coaches who really stepped up and were absolutely brilliant. It’s a collective effort by all.”
Hill, who was suspended for the game because of a “prolonged” debate with an umpire on Friday, praised hitting coach Dave Nakama and pitching coach Keith Zuniga for managing the ’Bows.
Hill also described Nahaku’s day as “one of the all-time performances as a Rainbow in this storied history.”
Hill said Nahaku was initially recruited because of his speed and defense. “We thought he was an elite defender with really good bat-to-ball skills,” Hill said. “He just didn’t strike out. We never saw the power coming until this summer. He hit a couple long home runs for Victoria (his summer league team). That just showed up.”
In winning two of three against the Matadors, the ’Bows improved to 20-6 overall and 8-4 in the Big West. It was the fewest games the ’Bows needed to reach 20 victories in 13 seasons of Big West membership. The Matadors fell to 6-17 and 3-9.
