A rough day for Hawaii sports ended with another tough one for the baseball team.
Oklahoma’s Sheldon Neuse hit the go-ahead RBI single in the top of the 12th inning and the Sooners, who gave up a three-run lead in the eighth, battled back to defeat Hawaii 8-5 on Saturday night.
A Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 3,100 was treated to a 3-hour, 37-minute affair that was UH’s first extra-inning game of the season.
Hawaii (7-12) trailed 5-2 in the bottom of the eighth when second baseman Jonathan Weeks, one of four freshman starters for UH, hit a two-out, two-run triple inside the right-field line that got past the glove of Taylor Alspaugh.
Catcher Chayce Ka‘aua followed with a solid single to left to drive in Weeks for UH’s third run of the inning to tie the game at 5.
Hawaii had been 2-for-19 in the series with runners in scoring position before those two hits.
Oklahoma reliever Jacob Evans (3-0), who gave up the two big hits after entering with two on and no out in the eighth, sat down nine of the next 10.
UH brought the tying run to the plate with nobody out in the 12th, but Evans closed it out with his sixth strikeout to earn the win.
"When you go into extra innings, you’re looking for the first team to scratch a run," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said.
OU first baseman Anthony Hermelyn went 3-for-4 with two walks and added an RBI double in the 12th inning to make it 8-5.
Kolbey Carpenter finished a home run shy of the cycle with two runs scored and Hunter Haley had three RBIs for the Sooners (14-8).
Weeks finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored to lead Hawaii, which finished with only six hits.
Reliever Cody Culp (0-1), who earned a two-inning save on Friday, got Hawaii out of the ninth and pitched scoreless 10th and 11th innings before giving up the go-ahead hit to take the loss.
"It was asking a lot of Cody, but he said he felt fine and wanted to go and we trust him but I think he just ran out of gas," Trapasso said. "He’s our best guy and I wouldn’t do anything different."
Starter Kyle Von Ruden allowed five runs on 10 hits with one walk and two strikeouts for UH.
Both teams scored their first runs thanks to fielding miscues. For Oklahoma, it was Carpenter’s one-out hit in the second that went under the glove of a diving Jordan Richartz in right, allowing a single to turn into a triple. He then scored on an RBI groundout by Haley.
"There’s such a small margin for error playing a team like Oklahoma," Trapasso said. "We’ve got to get Jordan to stay on his feet. Whenever he leaves his feet bad things happen — complete brain cramp on that."
The Sooners led 2-0 in the fifth when starter Jeffrey Curran, who gave up two hits through four, ran into trouble. Weeks led off with a single back up the middle and took second when Ka‘aua was hit by a pitch trying to bunt.
Jacob Sheldon-Collins dropped a nice bunt that was fielded cleanly by Curran, but Curran hurried his throw wide of first to allow Weeks to score and Sheldon-Collins to take second.
Curran left after hitting Kaeo Aliviado to load the bases with nobody out, but was picked up by reliever Ralph Garza Jr., who came in throwing strikes.
Garza minimized the damage, getting J.J. Kitaoka to hit into a double play. The tying run scored, but that was it for UH, as Eric Ramirez grounded out to short, with Aliviado stranded on third.
The Sooners teed off on Von Ruden in the sixth, needing just eight pitches to take a 5-2 lead.
Hermelyn hit a one-out single and Carpenter’s two-out double went over the head of Alan Baldwin in left to put Oklahoma back in front.
Haley, who was hitting .146 in 14 starts entering the game, got the green light on a 3-0 count and drilled Oklahoma’s first homer of the series over the wall in right for a 5-2 lead.
The series ends Sunday at 1:05 p.m. with UH senior Jarrett Arakawa making his second start of the season for the ‘Bows.
OKLAHOMA 8, HAWAII 5 |
OKLAHOMA |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
HAWAII |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
Aikin cf |
5 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
Aliviado cf |
5 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Alspaugh rf |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Kitaoka 3b |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Neuse ss |
6 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
Ramirez 1b |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Hermelyn 1b |
4 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
Sawelson dh |
5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Tasin dh |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Baldwin lf |
6 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Wise pr |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Richartz rf |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
O’Brien ph |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
LoCoco rf |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Frazier pr |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Miller ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Coolbgh. ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Weeks 2b |
4 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Carpenter 2b |
5 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
Ka‘aua c |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Haley lf |
6 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
Sh.-Colln. ss |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Shaw c |
5 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Walbergh 3b |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Ake 3b |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Totals |
31 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
Totals |
41 |
5 |
7 |
3 |
OKLAHOMA (14-8) |
010 |
013 |
000 |
|
003 |
– |
8 |
14 |
1 |
HAWAII (7-12) |
000 |
020 |
030 |
|
000 |
— |
5 |
7 |
1 |
E—Ramirez, Garza. DP— Hawaii 2, Oklahoma 2. LOB—Oklahoma 8, Hawaii 10. 2B—Hermelyn, Carpenter, Shaw. 3B—Carpenter, Weeks. HR—Haley. HBP—Aliviado, Kitaoka, Ka‘aua. SH—Aikin, Alspaugh, Sheldon-Collins. SB—Neuse.
OKLAHOMA |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
Curran |
4 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
Garza |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
McIlraith |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
|
Evans (W, 3-0) |
5 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
HAWAII |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
Von Ruden |
6 |
10 |
5 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
Jones |
21⁄3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
Culp (L, 0-1) |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Gleese |
2⁄3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
WP—Jones. HBP—by Curran (Ka‘aua), by Curran (Aliviado), by Evans (Kitaoka). BK—Garza, Jones. Umpires—(Plate): Mel Gatson. (First): Frank Plugeradt. (Third): Billy Van Raaphorst. T—3:37. A—NA.