Opening night is in the books and Hawaii is still looking for its first run of the season.
Sophomore Jake Reed and senior Christian Jones combined on a five-hit shutout as the sixth-ranked Ducks beat the Rainbows 3-0 Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.
A sell-out crowd of 3,498 witnessed the Rainbows get shut out in an opener for the first time since their first-ever NCAA game in 1971.
"We didn’t play bad, but we didn’t play great either," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "The truth is we did some good things because we probably should have lost that game 7-0, but we managed the innings they scored well."
Reed allowed four hits and two walks and struck out seven in six innings, helping the Ducks move to .500 (7-7) against Hawaii since the program’s return in 2009.
Right-fielder Adam Hurley doubled and had two of UH’s five hits in his Rainbow debut. He also threw out a runner trying to score from second on a base hit.
"We were all fired up obviously going up against (Oregon) and I felt like we hit a lot of balls hard," Hurley said. "We’ll keep the same approach and see what happens."
UH starter Scott Squier threw 95 pitches in 42⁄3 innings, giving up four hits with three walks and two strikeouts, allowing two runs.
He first ran into trouble in the second, giving up a leadoff single to Ryan Healy. Kyle Garlick drew a walk, and a single by Steven Packard loaded the bases with one out.
Squier got Josh Graham to ground into a fielder’s choice but walked Rainbow-killer J.J. Altobelli to force in a run.
"I went and battled, but I didn’t have my best stuff today," Squier said. "I wasn’t as efficient as I should have been but tried to battle and get through it."
Altobelli was 10-for-17 with four RBIs in his previous three games against the Rainbows. He walked twice on Friday, scoring once and driving in a run.
Oregon was held to just six hits but managed to squeeze across three runs using five walks, two hit batters and two stolen bases.
"It was the same thing we’ve been talking about in our scrimmages — you can’t walk five guys and you can’t throw as many pitches as Squier did," Trapasso said. "That’s going to get you beat."
Hurley, a transfer from Rio Hondo (Calif.) College, recorded UH’s first hit, driving a two-out double to the wall in right-center in the second.
Two-out singles by Marc Flores and Andre Real gave Hurley a chance to hit with a runner in scoring position in the fourth, but Reed got him swinging on a 2-2 pitch to end the inning.
"Any time we seemed to get guys on base and pose a threat it was with two outs," Trapasso said. "I really felt — as funny as it sounds because we were shut out — that we were getting some good at-bats. I just think Reed and Jones were that good tonight."
Oregon would chase Squier in the fifth on an RBI single by Brett Thomas with two outs.
Altobelli drew his second walk and Aaron Payne reached base on a bunt that catcher Trevor Podratz fielded cleanly but chose to throw to second, trying to force out Altobelli.
Altobelli beat the throw and came around to score on the single by Thomas. Payne also tried to score but was thrown out by Hurley.
Payne gave the Ducks a 3-0 lead in the seventh on a bunt single, scoring pinch runner Nick Catalona, who took off on first motion by Rainbow reliever Jon Flinn.
Flinn, who replaced Squier, gave up the one run on two hits in 12⁄3 innings.
Lawrence Chew finished the game without allowing a hit, going the final 21⁄3 innings.
Freshman left-hander Quintin Torres-Costa will make his UH debut in the second game of the series tonight at 6:35.