The Hawaii baseball team’s new rallying cry is: the drive for five.
On Friday afternoon in Northridge, Calif., the Rainbow Warriors powered past Cal State Northridge 7-0 in a statement-making opener of a three-game Big West series.
The ’Bows won their fourth in a row to move into a fourth-place tie with CSUN at 15-10 with five regular-season games remaining. The ’Bows are 26-18 overall; CSUN is 29-17. The Big West does not have a postseason tournament, so the regular-season winner is assured a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
“The only thing that matters when we don’t have a conference tournament is first place,” said UH coach Rich Hill, whose ’Bows entered the weekend three games behind Cal State Fullerton. “That’s what we’re here to do, and we’re striving for that.”
The ’Bows did not hold back in using three of their best pitchers to produce their fourth shutout of the season.
“We look at this thing as it’s win or go home,” Hill said. “Our goal is the championship of the Big West. In order to do that, we feel we need to win out. Therefore every game is an elimination game.”
Harry Gustin pitched the first five innings to improve to 4-3. He struck out five, including the first four Matadors he faced.
Alex Giroux allowed only one hit in the sixth. Harrison Bodendorf relinquished one hit in the final three innings for the fourth save of his freshman season.
In all, the three UH hurlers allowed six hits, struck out eight, and reduced the Matadors to 1-for-12 hitting with runners on base.
Designated hitter Jacob Igawa, second baseman Stone Miyao and left fielder Ben Zeigler-Namoa each had three hits for the ’Bows. UH amassed 14 hits against four CSUN pitchers.
“Great pitching,” Hill said, “great relief pitching. Great defense, no errors. Timely hitting. Great energy in the dugout. On the road. … Our guys came out ready to play. It was awesome.”
The ’Bows took a 2-0 lead on Quandt’s run-scoring single in the second inning and Zeigler-Namoa’s RBI single in the third.
The ’Bows broke it open with a five-run eighth. Jordan Donahue’s suicide squeeze brought home Quandt from third to make it 3-0. With two outs, Matt Wong delivered a run-scoring single, Igawa singled home a run, and Miyao pulled a pitch down the right-field line for a two-run triple. Three of those runs were credited to CSUN reliever Xavier Martinez, who entered with an 0.81 ERA in 11 games against Big West opponents.
Miyao and Zeigler-Namoa appeared to have regained their groove. Miyao is 8-for-16 in the past four games.
“Both of them work so hard and have such a good synergy with (hitting coach) Dave Nakama,” Hill said. “You just have breakthroughs at different parts of the season. They’ve really had some really good breakouts.”
The second of this three-game series begins at 11 a.m. today. Randy Abshier is set to start for the ’Bows.
