This is one of those times when winning seems contagious among the University of Hawaii’s sports teams.
Men’s volleyball — reigning national champion for two years running — is 28-2 after winning the Big West tournament Saturday and heading into next week’s national tournament as the No. 2 seed. The Rainbow Warriors have won their past 11 matches.
Wahine beach volleyball is 27-8. Water polo is 19-5 after its senior night victory over UC Davis on Saturday.
Tennis, anyone? The UH women went 8-1 to win the Big West regular-season team championship and the men’s team is 10-8 overall with the conference championships starting Friday, and program all-time great Andre Ilagan winding down his college career.
The softball team is 8-3 since the day Brianna Lopez pitched a no-hitter; it was April 1, and that’s no joke. The Wahine start a key stretch of games Friday, with series at home against Long Beach State and then on the road at Fullerton — the two teams ahead of UH in the conference standings.
Baseball (20-13) has won seven of its past eight games, including a three-game sweep of Long Beach State that concluded Sunday and Tuesday’s 9-4 win at Cal Baptist before the ’Bows get back to Big West play Friday at UC Riverside.
“What’s happening right now reminds me of two years,” says Spectrum TV baseball analyst and former Rainbows pitcher Sam Spangler. “In 2010, we won the WAC the same day the softball team beat Alabama to get to the (Women’s College World Series). And in 2006 and 2007, when I was a freshman, it felt like a lot of teams were really good, all year. Volleyball, and the football games were just insane. It was so much fun, especially as a student.”
Spangler — now a reporter and anchor at KHON — remains a student … of the game of baseball, and a fan … of pretty much everything at his alma mater.
“How about that crazy walk-off goal to beat Cal for the water polo team?”
We briefly debated if, instead, it should be called a swim-off goal.
Of course, the baseball team is the one Spangler — who pitched two seasons in the pros after the ’Bows — follows closest.
He isn’t surprised by second-year coach Rich Hill’s unpredictable lineups and surprise strategic moves. In 2010, Spangler’s senior year, UH played Hill’s University of San Diego team twice in the NCAA Tournament and in a regular-season game.
“I remember his lineup fluctuating,” Spangler said.
(The ’Bows beat the Toreros in all three of those games, with Arizona State beating UH in the Tempe Regional final.)
“A big part of (UH’s) success this season is they have so much offensive depth, all these guys who can hit,” Spangler said. “Look at (Zach) Storbakken, he hardly played early in the season. Matt Miura is an interesting prospect. (Jared) Quandt has an OPS over .900 and bats ninth.”
Storbakken entered Tuesday’s game with an .808 OPS in 32 plate appearances and went 2-for-5. Miura leads the team in stolen bases — as a part-time player.
“A team with so much depth allows him to mix and match, based on matchups,” Spangler said. “He’s so outside the box in his thought process.”
As an example of his unorthodox moves, Hill switched catcher DallasJ Duarte to No. 1 in the batting order last week. Duarte responded with a home run in his first plate appearance at the top of the lineup and two more with four walks Tuesday.
His OPS is an incredible 2.122 and UH is 4-0 with him batting first. We can safely say that’s working out pretty well so far.
Also, have you ever seen a squeeze bunt on a 3-0 pitch? Fans at Murakami Stadium did Sunday, and that worked, too.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen it, and I’ve watched thousands of baseball games,” Spangler said of Stone Miyao’s bunt that scored Quandt. “Coach Hill loves the chess match.”
Much of UH’s recent success is due to pitching. Frontliners Harry Gustin, Randy Abshier, Harrison Bodendorf, Alex Giroux and Connor Harrison have all been better than solid.
Slugger Kyson Donahue has six homers and can play almost any position. We agree he has a chance to make it to the majors, but Spangler takes it a step further with a bold proclamation.
“If he does make it, I think he can hit 30 homers a year,” Spangler said. “He’ll fill out a little more, and the homers he hits now are not wall-scrapers. He struggles a bit with offspeed pitches at times, but almost everyone does at that point. He has the hands to hit; he’s not gonna get blown away by fastballs.”
Even if the Rainbows remain hot, it’s unrealistic to expect them to climb from fifth in the Big West standings into contention for an NCAA regional berth.
The ’Bows are headed in the right direction, long term. For the short term, this year’s team could really benefit from a conference tournament. That is in the works for the Big West, but not until 2025 at the earliest.