UH Baseball
'Bows use 9-run seventh inning to pull away from Sharks


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
March 6, 2021, 12:50am

 



>> Box score (from Hawaii Athletics)

MANOA — A nine-run seventh inning opened the flood gates for the University of Hawaii in its 14-3 win over Hawaii Pacific at Les Murakami Stadium Friday night.

The Rainbow Warriors (3-2) pulled away for an 11-run margin of victory over the Division-II Sharks (0-2) for the second straight night. The hosts won Thursday night's series opener by a score of 12-1.

Unlike Thursday, however — when ace pitcher Aaron Davenport logged a career-best 13 strikeouts — Friday starter Cade Halemanu (Pearl City '18) did not have his best stuff and went just 2 2/3 innings before he was lifted for reliever Tai Atkins (Kamehameha-Hawaii '19). Atkins also struggled and recorded just four outs before he gave way to junior right-hander Buddie Pindel, who threw five scoreless innings of two-hit ball to pick-up the win.

Pindel was thrown right into a high-stress situation when he entered the game with no outs in the top of the fifth inning and the bases loaded full of Sharks, who had just taken a 3-2 lead when Kyle Layugan (Mid-Pacific '18) scored on a sac bunt.

The first batter Pindel faced, Haydon Huff, hit an 0-2 pitch in the air toward short centerfield, but Adam Fogel made a sliding catch for the first out and the runners were forced to hold. Then, Darius Price laid down another bunt to the third base side of the pitcher's mound, but Pindel got to it and flipped it to catcher Tyler Murray just in time to get the force out at home. Pindel then struck out Nicholas Jlo to end the threat and leave all three base runners stranded.

Pindel's heroics proved to be crucial as the UH offense tied the score in the bottom of the fifth with Kole Kaler's leadoff homer over the right field fence — his first round-tripper of the season.

The ‘Bows took the lead for good an inning later when Scotty Scott led off the Hawaii half of the sixth with a triple and scored one batter later on an Adam Fogel RBI-single back up the middle.

But the seventh inning was when the home team became not so hospitable. UH sent 13 batters to the plate and plated nine runs despite just four hits. Three of them, however, were of the extra-base variety, including a pair of bases-clearing, three-run doubles by Fogel and Tyler Best. The ‘Bows were aided by three walks, two hit batsmen and two wild pitches.

Fogel drove in a season-best four runs, drew one of 10 walks issued by HPU pitching and scored a run to pace the UH offense, which totaled a dozen hits by 10 different players.

Layugan was the lone HPU player to pair hits. He finished 2 for 4 and drove in a pair of runs with his third-inning single up the middle that culminated a eight-pitch at-bat and knotted the score at 2.

HPU starting pitcher Brandon Peterson allowed two runs in four innings of work, but walked five and did not factor into the decision. The Sharks used seven pitchers in the loss. Daniel Cortez was the pitcher of record for HPU.

Among those arms that the Sharks used out of the bullpen Friday were Kailua graduate Stone Parker (1.0 IP, 2K), Waipahu alum Makana Quia (0.1 IP, 4 ER, 2H), University Lab/PAC-5's Richard Higa (0.1 IP, ER, H, K) and former Kalani hurler Edward Lee (1.0 IP, 2H).

Halemanu struck out three and walked one and gave up two runs on three hits. He also hit a batter and had one wild pitch. Halemanu logged five innings of work in his season debut against Arizona State last week, but failed to get out of the third inning Friday.

Atkins was charged with one run on two hits with two strikeouts, one walk and a hit batsmen.

Among the other 18 local products on the Rainbow Warrior roster of note Friday was designated hitter Konnor Palmeira (Kamehameha-Maui '20), who was twice hit by a pitch to reach base and walked once. He came around to score one of the runs in the seventh. Also, second baseman Stone Miyao (Waiakea '19) and reserve outfielder Naighel Calderon (Lanai '19) each had a base hit in the win.

The teams play again Saturday and wrap up the four-game series Sunday. Both games are scheduled for 1:05 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium. Fan attendance is not allowed at this time.


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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