HONOLULU – The University of Hawaii baseball team has returned home and will face Cal State Northridge in a key three-game Big West Conference series Friday through Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium. ADVERTISING HONOLULU – The University of Hawaii baseball
HONOLULU – The University of Hawaii baseball team has returned home and will face Cal State Northridge in a key three-game Big West Conference series Friday through Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium.
Friday’s and Saturday’s games each are scheduled for 6:35 p.m. and will be televised live statewide on OCSports channels 16 (SD) and 1016 (HD). Sunday’s game is set for 1:05 p.m. and will not be televised. All three games will be broadcast live on radio via ESPN 1420 AM (KHLO in Hilo and KKON in Kona).
The Rainbow Warriors are 12-23 overall and 3-6 in the Big West coming off three straight losses at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last weekend. Cal State Northridge (22-13, 2-7) is coming off a 10-8 non-conference home victory over Brigham Young after defeating UC Santa Barbara, 3-2, in 13 innings the day before.
UH lost the first two games of the Cal Poly series after holding late leads in each, blowing a 5-0 lead after four-and-a-half innings before losing, 7-5, last Friday and then losing a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning on Saturday to fall, 3-2. The Rainbow Warriors also led 2-0 after two innings on Sunday before the Mustangs exploded for four runs each in the third and fourth en route to a 12-5 victory.
Alex Sawelson leads all Hawaii regulars in batting with a .309 average, with Eric Ramirez right behind at .308 with 24 runs batted in. Alan Baldwin is batting .292, Hilo High alum Chayce Ka‘aua is at .278 with 14 RBIs, and Kaeo Aliviado is hitting .274 with a team-high four home runs and 24 RBIs. Konawaena grad JJ Kitaoka is batting .216 but is third on the team in RBIs with 17.
The starting pitching rotation is still solid overall, led by Tyler Brashears (4-4, 2.35 earned run average) and LJ Brewster (4-3, 2.64 ERA). Senior left-hander Jarrett Arakawa got tagged for four runs in two and two-thirds innings last Sunday, but he is still 2-1 with a respectable 3.24 ERA overall.
The bullpen has been a point of concern this season, with Matt Valencia leading the way at 0-2 and a 3.93 ERA.
NO. 1-RANKED RAINBOW WARRIOR SPIKERS HEAD TO BYU: The No. 1-ranked UH men’s volleyball team will wrap up regular season play with a pair of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches at No. 6 Brigham Young on Friday and Saturday.
Both matches are set for 3 p.m. Hawaii time and will be available for viewing via livestream at BYUTVSports.com
The Rainbow Warriors are 23-3 overall, 18-2 in the MPSF after sweeping a pair of home matches against Stanford last weekend. UH has now won 16 straight and has already clinched home court advantage in their MPSF Tournament first-round match on April 25.
BYU is 15-9, 12-8 after a pair of sweeps at Cal State Northridge.
Hawaii can finish no worse than second place in the regular season standings, but needs to win both matches this weekend to secure the tournament’s No. 1 seed. A loss in either match would allow No. 4-ranked UC Irvine to win the regular season, should the Anteaters defeat UC San Diego as expected.
RAINBOW WAHINE SOFTBALL TEAM AT CAL POLY: The UH softball team is headed back to the Mainland for a three-game Big West series at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
The series begins with a 1 p.m. (Hawaii time) game Friday followed by a Saturday doubleheader starting at 11 a.m. Live in-game stats can be found at www.gopoly.com
The Rainbow Wahine are 24-18 overall, 5-4 in the Big West after dropping two of three home games against Long Beach State last weekend. Cal Poly is 21-22, 4-5 coming off a series victory at UC Davis.
Freshman Brittany Hitchcock pitched a three-hitter for UH’s only victory last weekend, improving to 11-6. She has a 2.55 ERA with four shutouts.
