UH-Hilo baseball ends season with loss to UH-Manoa

UH-Hilo’s baseball team closed its 2024 season with a 13-1 loss to UH Manoa Tuesday evening at Les Murakami Stadium in Honolulu.

It was the second encounter of the season between the two teams, who last met in an exhibition matchup in February in Hilo.

The Vulcans jumped on the scoreboard early, starting with a lead-off single to center field by Vance Oshiro. Cody Min drew a full-count walk and later raced around the horn to score on Trent Jackson’s double down the right field line to take an early 1-0 lead.

That would be it for UH-Hilo as the Rainbow Warriors plated a pair of runs in the bottom half of the opening inning before opening up the lead with five runs in the bottom of the second. UH Manoa managed to finish with 12 hits to just three from UH-Hilo.

The Vulcans used eight pitchers with Aaron Davies making his 38th and final start on the rubber. It was also the program’s all-time strikeouts leader’s (in the Division II era) 15th start of the season, making him tied for most pitching starts in 2024 among all NCAA Division II pitchers.

UH Manoa batters were also helped out with six walks and seven hit batsmen provided by the Vulcans pitchers.

Several UH-Manoa players who made appearances in the game are former Big Island Interscholastic Association athletes — including Waiakea High alumnus Stone Miyao, Kamehameha Schools – Hawai‘i grads Tai Atkins and Dallas Duarte, as well as Konawaena High alum Bronson Rivera.

Duarte hit a pair of sacrifice flies to drive in two runs.

Atkins pitched one frame in the fifth inning, and struck out two batters while keeping UHH off base.

Mark Fedro, who made his first career start in the two teams’ matchup earlier this season in February, recorded UH-Hilo’s only other hit with a double in the seventh inning.

The Vulcans wrap up the season with a 19-31 overall record after going 11-21 in Pacific West Conference play for a No. 8 finish.