In the chill of the night, Shunsuke Sakaino rocketed a two-run homer in the 10th inning to lead the Hawaii baseball team to a 4-2 victory Friday over Cal Poly at Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
With the mercury at 58 degrees, Sakaino coolly pulled a 350-foot drive over the fence in right field as the Rainbow Warriors seized the opener of the three-game road series against the Big West’s leaders.
“Just exciting,” Sakaino said in a telephone interview. “It was a fastball, up and in. I felt I got all of it. … It was important for the team, so I’m glad we won.”
The Rainbow Warriors improved to 24-8 overall and 10-6 in the Big West. The Mustangs, who dropped to 23-9 and 12-1, lost for the first time in 10 games and fell into a first-place tie with UC Irvine. Saturday’s middle game of the series starts at noon.
“It was more of a road win in a very hostile environment,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “These guys draw very well. To win an extra-inning game on the road against a first-place team says a lot about the resiliency of this team and the character of this team.”
Cam Hoiland and Alejandro Garza hit solo home runs to help the Mustangs take a 2-1 lead into the ninth. But with ’Bows on second and third, Itsuki Takemoto, who was UH’s starting pitcher, hit a sacrifice fly to left to bring home Ben Zeigler-Namoa with the tying run.
With two outs in the 10th, pinch hitter Jack Salmon fell behind 0-2 in the count against Tanner Sagouspe, the Mustangs’ closer. But Salmon battled his way to drawing a walk. Jarret “JJ” Nielsen pinch-ran for Salmon. Sakaino then pulled a 1-0 pitch from Sagouspe well over the fence in right field to give the ’Bows a 4-2 lead.
“He’s just a baseball player,” Hill said of Sakaino, who also caught a shoestring-high liner to start a double play in the first and backhanded a short-hopped ball in the ninth. “It was great to see. He works so hard. He’s such a good kid. To be able to (hit that homer) was awesome.”
Cory Ronan and Isaiah Magdaleno, who improved to 4-0, combined to pitch 42⁄3 scoreless innings.
Ronan replaced Takemoto on the mound with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth. Instead of a lefty-on-lefty matchup, right-swinging Xander McLaurin was summoned to pinch-hit for Hoiland. With the infield at double-play depth, Ronan struck out McLaurin with a 91 mph fastball.
“Cory just blew it by that guy,” Hill said.
Ronan then induced left-handed Jack Downing to fly out to left to strand three Mustangs.
“We went purely matchup,” Hill said of the two-batter strategy. “Cory’s been lights-out lately.”
Ronan did not allow a hit in 22⁄3 innings as the bridge to Magdaleno.
In the ninth, the Mustangs placed runners on first and third with one out. Magdaleno coaxed Garza into a popup for the second out. After Jack Collins was intentionally walked to load the bases, Magdaleno struck out Casey Murray Jr. to send the game into extra innings.
Of that sequence, Hill said, “You can’t walk (Garza) to get to Collins, right? You’ve got to get Garza out, then walk Collins, and get to Murray. That’s exactly what happened. All the credit goes to Mags. He got Garza to pop up on that really good changeup. Collins wasn’t going to be the guy to hurt us. And Mags had a big pitch to Murray for strike three.”
The ’Bows are 5-1 in extra-inning games this season.
