Tribune-Herald
A rock all season, senior Corey MacDonald went out with a rare soft start.
Cal Riverside roughed up MacDonald in his shortest outing of the season Friday in beating the University of Hawaii 7-2 in a baseball game at Riverside (Calif.) Sports Complex.
Even as the Rainbow Warriors (16-34, 11-15 Big West) have struggled all season in finishing seventh in their league, MacDonald had at times been immune. Not Friday.
The 6-foot-6 right-hander allowed 11 hits and six runs in 5 1/3 innings, failing to finish the six for the first time in 13 starts, dating back to his first game of the season. MacDonald (7-6), who walked two and struck out four, had a three-game winning streak snapped any was two outs short of reaching 100 innings. His ERA also rose from 3.73 to 4.18.
Francisco Tellez hit run-scoring triples in the second and third innings off MacDonald as the Highlanders (13-32, 9-18) built a 5-0 lead in ending UH’s season-high four-game win streak.
Tellez, who has compiled five hits in the series, finished with three RBIs, adding a run-scoring single in seventh off of Scott Kuzminsky. The junior right-hander struck out a season-high five batters in 2 2/3 innings.
Ben Doucette (3-7) struck out six to pitch Riverside’s second straight complete game, yielding two runs on nine hits and two hits.
The Rainbow Warriors scored both of their runs on consecutive extra-base hits in the sixth. Kalei Hanawahine tripled to left-center to score Connor George, who had singled, and Max Duval followed with a double to left.
George and Austin Wobrock were both 2 for 4 as UH finished with nine hits but stranded eight runners on base.
Devyn Bolasky drove in two runs for the Highlanders, an RBI single in the second inning and a hit in the sixth that chased MacDonald. Phil Holinsworth was 2 for 3 with two runs scored.
The teams finish their season with a 10 a.m. HST game today.
