Slowly but surely, the University of Hawaii baseball team is starting to build momentum.
DallasJ Duarte homored, Jacob Igawa collected three hits and Cade Halemanu pocketed his first win of the season with six innings of work Friday in a 4-1 victory at CSU Bakersfield, the Rainbow Warriors’ seventh consecutive win.
Duarte, a former Kamehameha standout, gave UH (15-16, 8-6) the lead with a two-run blast, his second of the season, and Waiakea alum Stone Miyao jump-started the offense in the fifth with a double. Miyao’s hit ended a streak in which 12 straight batters were retired, and though he was retired on a fielder’s choice, Cole Cabrera’s RBI single made it 3-0.
In the eighth, Duarte and Igawa, a Waiakea grad, led off the inning with singles, producing a run on Matt Wong’s double.
Halemanu (1-3) allowed one earned run on five hits and struck out six on 106 pitches. Junior Dalton Renne nailed down his second save of the year.
Cabrera finished with four hits, Igawa extended his hit streak to seven with his seventh multihitgame of the season. Duarte was 2 for 4 with two runs scored.
UH will go for the three-game sweep at Saturday.
Pontes shuts down Cal State Bakersfield in first start
UH parlayed Blaze Koali ‘i Pontes’ impressive pitching, Jacob Igawa’s three-run double and six hit batsmen into a 7-4 road victory over Cal State Bakersfield at Hardt Field on the CSUB campus.
A crowd of 552 saw Pontes continue his recent mastery, allowing only AJ Miller’s fifth home run, while striking out eight in six innings. He did not issue a walk. In the past five games, Pontes has allowed three earned runs in 191 /3 innings. During that stretch, he has a 1.40 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings.
“The player of the game is Li ‘i Pontes, ” Hawaii coach Rich Hill said. “Pretty spectacular. … He’s been awesome. Tonight was the best I’ve seen him, the best anyone’s seen him. He was up to 94 (mph ) with the filthy changeup to their left-handed hitters and a really good slider to the right-handed hitters.”
It was Pontes’ first start in 13 appearances this season. Asked if Pontes had earned a spot in the starting rotation, Hill said, “You know how we do it. It’s week by week. He’s the leading candidate at this point.”
In the sixth inning, the Rainbow Warriors loaded the bases on a hit batsman, a walk and a fielder’s choice. With two outs, Igawa pulled a drive into the gap in left-center to bring home three runs and give the’Bows a 3-0 lead. After CSUB starting pitcher Jaykob Acosta was removed, Matt Wong followed with an RBI single.
“When guys are getting those two-out hits, that’s when winning streaks are happening,” Hill said.
The Roadrunners scored two runs in the seventh to close to 4-3.
But the’Bows needed only one hit to score two insurance runs in the eighth. Cole Cabrera was struck by a pitch, then went to second on Stone Miyao’s walk. One out later, Wong singled home Cabrera. The’Bows reloaded the bases when Jordan Donahue was hit by a pitch after squaring for a squeeze. Aaron Ujimori was hit by a pitch to bring home Miyao.
The six hit batsmen increased the Bows’ season total to 51 in 30 games. The’Bows also drew six walks. Five of the’Bows’ runs were related to a walk or beaning.
“That’s kind of grind-it-out (at-bats ).” Hill said. “That’s getting on the plate, not moving your feet, having strike-zone discipline, and finding a way.”
CSUB coach Jeremy Beard told ESPN +: “Too many freebies right there. … I thought Jaykob came out and did a nice job, going toe-to-toe with (Pontes ) for a while. But we blinked a little bit there. We had some double-play balls we didn’t take care of. It was really the difference in the ball game.”
Pontes picked off a Roadrunner, and UH turned two double plays, including one to end the game.