In a pitching performance that was wild and beguiled, Jeremy Wu-Yelland did not allow a hit in five innings to vault the Hawaii baseball team to a 7-1 victory over Iowa at Les Murakami Stadium.
A Friday night crowd of 2,701 saw Wu-Yelland tame the Big Ten visitors to help the ’Bows improve to 2-3. The Hawkeyes fell to 2-2. The teams meet in a doubleheader today beginning at 1:05 p.m.
This was hardly masterpiece theater. Wu-Yelland allowed seven free passes — walking five and plunking two. Forty of his 85 pitches were outside the strike zone.
But Wu-Yelland found the escape hatch in each of his five innings. He departed with flu-like symptoms.
“I don’t think that had anything to do with him walking 100 guys,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said. “He made the pitches he needed to make.”
A strikeout stranded a runner in the first inning. With two runners in scoring position in the second, Wu-Yelland induced two flyouts to center and struck out Matthew Sosa.
The Hawkeyes stranded two more runners in the third inning and one in the fourth.
In the fifth, Iowa’s Mitchell Boe drew a leadoff walk. Izaya Fullard then grounded to shortstop Maaki Yamazaki, who flipped the ball to second baseman Tyler Best for the out. Best’s relay was late to first baseman Alex Baeza. But umpire Steven Corvi ruled that Boe’s slide interfered with Best. The play was ruled a double play.
A week earlier against Portland, Wu-Yelland struck out seven before running into trouble, exiting with one out in the sixth after allowing six hits, a walk and three runs. On Friday night, Wu-Yelland kept the Hawkeyes off balance with a 94 mph fastball and power slider. Wu-Yelland struck out five.
Cade Smith pitched the final four innings to earn the save.
“That was the silly part of the game,” Trapasso said. “To have eight walks, three hit batsmen … you’re not going to win many games like that. (Wu-Yelland and Smith) made the pitches when they had to. That says something about Jeremy and about Cade.”
Adam Fogel, Baeza and Best each had three hits. It was the debut of Best, who was not available to play last weekend because of an incident.
The ’Bows scored two runs in the third inning to break a scoreless game. With his namesake — UH’s starting quarterback — in the stands, Iowa’s Cole McDonald issued a single to Best to open the third. Best easily scored when Scotty Scott pulled a drive into the right-field corner for a triple. Scott then scored on Yamazaki’s groundout to second.
Against the left-swinging Baeza in the fourth, Iowa left fielder Chris Whelan and center fielder Justin Jenkins played relatively shallow. Baeza, who had an 11-pitch at-bat in the second inning, smacked McDonald’s eighth pitch — a 3-2 fastball — over the drawn-in outfield to the wall in left-center. One out later, Baeza scooted to third on Best’s liner to center. Best stole second and then Scott drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases. Yamazaki’s second RBI groundout scored Baeza. Best and Scott raced home on Fogel’s two-run double, a drive that rocketed over Jenkins in center.
The ’Bows added two more runs in the fifth to extend their lead to 7-0. After nearly being struck by Grant Leonard’s inside fastball — the pitch ricocheted off the bat — Eric Lopez ripped a double to right-center.
One out later, Baeza grounded a single between shortstop Tanner Wetrich and third baseman Sosa to drive in Lopez. Jacob Sniffin then doubled to right to advance Baeza to third. After Best struck out, Scott reached on an infield single to short that enabled Baeza to score the ’Bows’ seventh run.
