Dominating from first pitch to pau hana celebration, the Hawaii baseball team coasted to Sunday’s 16-0 victory over UC Davis at Les Murakami Stadium.
A crowd of 2,508 saw the Rainbow Warriors control all phases in taking the first two of this three-game series. The ’Bows won their ninth consecutive series dating to last year, and improved to 16-5 overall and 5-3 in the Big West. The Aggies fell to 11-9 and 3-2.
“I wish they were all like that,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “That’s the offense, the defense, the pitching, the bench — it all came together today.”
Offense? Designated hitter Itsuki Takemoto and first baseman Ben Zeigler-Namoa each drove in three runs.
“I just did my job,” said Takemoto, a two-way player who drove in two runs on Saturday and went 2-for-5 on Sunday. “I just swing, contact, that’s it. Nothing changed (with the swing). Keep it simple. That’s it. That’s so simple, but that’s it.”
Zeigler-Namoa had three sacrifice flies.
“It was a weird day for me, for sure,” Zeigler-Namoa said. “Three sac flies, a walk, one hit. Just a weird day. But the boys played a hell of a game today. You know what? We have to come back tomorrow and do the same thing.”
Center fielder Matthew Miura went 2-for-2, scored three runs and drove in another. He also drew three walks. Miura, who went 4-for-4 on Saturday, has reached base in all nine plate appearances this series.
Shortstop Jordan Donahue, who was activated on Saturday after missing 18 consecutive games because of a hamate injury, went 3-for-3 and scored three runs. “You don’t need it, I guess,” Donahue said of the extraction of the hamate bone in his right hand. “I guess it’s a pretty common baseball injury. They go in there, take it out, and it’s a four-to-six-week recovery.”
Defense? Zeigler-Namoa made two unassisted double plays when he snared line drives from Jaxon Murphy in the third inning and Evan Genti in the eighth to double off runners. “Awesome,” Zeigler-Namoa said. “Just getting lucky, I guess.”
With the bases loaded in the sixth, UH right fielder Jared Quandt caught Jason Hanson’s towering fly ball. But Riley Acosta tagged up, saw Quandt position for the throw home, and decided to remain at third.
“It’s nice to get that respect,” Quandt said. “I was kind of hoping he would go, to be honest, and get an opportunity to throw somebody out. That’s kind of rare from the outfield.”
Pitching? Sebastian Gonzalez, who threw 42⁄3 scoreless innings in relief of starter Liam O’Brien, earned his first UH victory in 19 career appearances.
After overcoming discomfort with his hip flexor, Gonzalez has had back-to-back effective outings. “I felt a lot more like myself, getting back into that routine,” Gonzalez said. “I kind of threw a bit in the bullpen and, I’m not going to lie, I sprayed a couple pitches all over the place. We worked on things. Zuni (pitching coach Keith Zuniga) told me to work on a couple things. I implemented it this game and it helped every single pitch.”
Gonzalez entered with two on and one out in the fourth. He coaxed two flyouts to end the threat. With the bases loaded in the sixth, he fell behind 2-1 on the count to pinch hitter Ethan Felix. But Gonzalez threw two consecutive strikes for the strikeout to escape the jam.
“When you have a lead, you need strikes early on,” Zuniga said of Gonzalez’s game plan. “Early on we just attacked those hitters. It was very fastball dominant. He just came in throwing strikes. He got a couple ground balls, some fly balls. Once we started to separate ourselves a little bit, he started mixing his breaking ball in early, throwing some change-ups, getting people off the fastball. They really weren’t in a position to be patient and get base runners on. They were bringing in a bunch of pinch hitters. Guys were going to come in and get their hacks in. It was important to throw strikes. He just filled up the strike zone today.”
Gonzalez threw strikes on 44 of 59 pitches.
The lone concern was third baseman Elijah Ickes leaving the game with an apparent hand ailment from sliding toward home plate. Ickes will undergo X-rays today.
“We’ll see,” Hill said. “He hurt his hand. He said he had some problems with some mobility. Trainers want to be safe and get an X-ray and see what’s going on.”
Ickes, who played shortstop in Donahue’s absence, moved back to third at the start of this series. Draven Nushida and Xaige Lancaster are proven third basemen. “We’ll cross that bridge when it happens,” Hill said. “We’ll wait and see how (Ickes) is (today).”
BIG WEST BASEBALL
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
Cal Poly 6 0 1.000 1
⁄2 14 8
UC Irvine 8 1 .889 — 17 5
Hawaii 5 3 .625 21
⁄2 16 5
UC Davis 3 2 .600 3 11 9
UCSD 5 4 .556 3 13 9
CS Bakersfield 3 3 .500 31
⁄2 8 18
UCSB 4 5 .444 4 15 7
CS Fullerton 4 5 .444 4 10 13
UC Riverside 2 7 .222 6 10 14
LBSU 2 7 .222 6 8 15
CS Northridge 2 7 .222 6 5 15
Sunday
Hawaii 16, UC Davis 0
Cal State Fullerton 10, UC Riverside 5
Long Beach State 10, UC San Diego 0
CS Northridge 10, Cal State Bakersfield 9
UC Irvine 9, UC Santa Barbara 4
x-Oregon State 8, Cal Poly 2
Today
UC Davis at Hawaii, 6:35 p.m.
x—nonconference
HAWAII 16, UC DAVIS 0
AGGIES AB R H BI BB SO LOB
Howard rf 4 0 2 0 0 1 0
Murphy lf 3 0 0 0 1 0 0
Wooldridge cf 3 0 0 0 1 1 2
Wolbert cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Leehey 2b 3 0 1 0 0 0 0
Story 2b 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
Acosta c 2 0 1 0 1 0 2
Gentil c 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Gouveia 3b/ss 3 0 1 0 1 1 0
Lee 1b/3b 3 0 1 0 0 1 0
Johnson 3b 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
Hanson dh 4 0 0 0 0 0 2
Wright ss 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Felix ph/1b 1 0 0 0 0 1 3
Hirschkorn 1b 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 31 0 8 0 4 5 9
RAINBOW WARRIORS AB R H BI BB SO LOB
Sakaino 2b 5 2 2 2 0 2 2
Miura cf 2 2 2 1 3 0 0
Ferguson ph/1b0 1 0 0 1 0 0
Zeigler 1b/lf 2 2 1 3 1 0 0
Takemoto dh 5 0 2 3 0 0 3
Kinzie pr/dh 1 0 1 2 0 0 0
Quandt rf 5 1 2 1 1 0 0
Ickes 3b 1 2 0 0 2 0 0
Lancaster 3b 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
Kuni ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 2
Nahaku lf/cf 1 0 0 0 0 0 2
Nushida lf/3b 5 1 2 1 0 1 0
Donahue ss 3 3 3 2 2 0 0
Salmon ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
Faildo c 2 0 0 0 0 2 1
Bowen ph 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
Vergel de Dios c0 1 0 0 1 0 0
Totals 36 16 16 15 11 6 11
UC Davis 000 000 000 — 0 8 0
Hawaii 011 312 44x — 16 16 0
Records:
Hawaii (16-5, 5-3 Big West)
UC Davis (11-9, 3-2 Big West)
DP—Hawaii 4. LOB—UC Davis 9, Hawaii
11.
2B—Zeigler, Kinzie, Quandt, Nushida.
HBP—Wright. SH—Sakaino. SF—Zeigler.
SB—Quandt, Ickes, Donahue. CS—Miura.
UC DAVIS IP H R ER BB SO
Wood (L 2-1) 3 5 4 4 3 2
Speights 1
⁄3 1 1 1 1 1
Lerma 2
⁄3 0 0 0 0 0
Barnes 2 2 3 3 3 3
Bonanno 2
⁄3 4 4 4 1 0
Batres 11
⁄3 4 4 4 3 0
HAWAII IP H R ER BB SO
O’Brien 31
⁄3 2 0 0 4 2
Gonzalez (W, 1-0) 4 2
⁄3 5 0 0 0 3
Andrews 1 1 0 0 0 0
WP—Wood 2. HBP—by O’Brien (Wright).
BK—Gonanno. PB—Acosta.
Umpires—HP: John Matson. 1B: Dax Upton. 3B: Michael Chukerman . T—3:07.
A—2,508.
