Indiana rallied for three runs in the final two innings to surge to Thursday night’s 4-3 baseball victory over Hawaii at Les Murakami Stadium.
A crowd of 930 saw the Hoosiers spoil an otherwise strong outing from starting pitcher Brendan Hornung to win the first two games of this four-game series. The teams meet again at 6:35 tonight.
Hornung, who struck out 14 in his previous outing, finished with 10 in 72⁄3 innings. But he surrendered a two-run homer to tie it at 3 in the top of the eighth.
In the ninth, Indiana second baseman Tony Butler was struck by a Kyle Mitchell pitch on a 3-0 count. Butler went to second on Colby Stratten’s sacrifice. Alex Krupa then singled on a line drive that shortstop Dustin Demeter could not catch while airborne, sending Butler to third. Matt Gorski then hit a grounder to short that UH could not turn quick enough for a double play. Butler raced home with the go-ahead run.
“It’s a simple formula,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said. “It’s simple but not easy. You have to play a clean game. I love our guys, love our toughness. We’re a good team. But you can’t play another good team and make mistakes. Every inning they have scored, two nights in a row now, there’s been a walk or an error involved in that inning. We have to do a better job of cleaning things up.”
Cushioned with a 3-1 lead, Hornung was cruising through the first seven innings. But in the eighth, Gorski reached on Demeter’s throwing error.
“I feel for Dustin,” Trapasso said. “Physical errors are part of baseball. You can’t get upset about that. That’s just baseball.”
One out later, Luke Miller hit a two-run blast over the wall in left field and onto Kalele Road. It was Miller’s third home run this season after hitting only one in 2016, when he was named to the freshman All-America team.
“It was a curveball, and I left it up,” Hornung said of the pitch to Miller. “Curveballs were up all night. I didn’t execute that pitch, and he took advantage of it. … One pitch cost us the game. It was a home run.”
Trapasso said Hornung “was great tonight. He deserved a better fate. But that’s baseball. He understands that.”
Trapasso expressed disappointment the ’Bows weren’t able to score after the third inning.
“You’ve got to separate yourself,” Trapasso said. “If you score three early, you need to score. We had a couple opportunities where we could have scored after the third inning, but we didn’t. That’s a lesson learned.”
The ’Bows took a 1-0 lead in the second when designated hitter Tyler Murray walked, went to third on two wild pitches, and scored on Marcus Doi’s single to right.
The Hoosiers tied it at 1 in the top of the third. Shortstop Jeremy Houston lined a single to left, then stole second. Houston scored on Krupa’s ground single up the middle.
But the Bows went ahead 3-1 with two runs in the third. Center fielder Dylan Vchulek opened with a single, the 17th game in a row in which he reached base. Vchulek then stole second and continued to third when catcher Ryan Fineman’s throw sailed into center. Demeter then singled to right to score Vchulek. Demeter went to second on Kekai Rios’ groundout and advanced to third on Adam Fogel’s single to center. Johnny Weeks then put down a bunt. Starting pitcher Tim Herrin fielded the ball, but with no time to catch Demeter at the plate, threw wildly past first baseman Austin Cangelosi.