HONOLULU - The Sacramento State baseball team split a doubleheader with the Hawai'i Rainbows on Saturday, May 3 at Les Murakami Stadium. Hawai'i took game one 3-1, while the Hornets were victorious in game two 7-3.
The Hornets record moved to 20-26, 11-11 in the Western Athletic Conference, while the Rainbows moved to 23-25, 10-12 in the WAC.
In game one, the Hornets opened the scoring in the top of the sixth, as senior Taylor Watanabe walked to lead off the inning, and was sacrificed to second on a bunt by senior Ryan Blair. Senior David Flores then singled to right center, scoring Watanabe to give Sacramento State a 1-0 lead.
Hawai'i came right back to take the lead in the bottom half of the inning, as with one out, Jeffrey Van Doornum, Kevin Macdonald and Vinnie Catricala connected on three straight singles. Catricala's single brought home Van Doornum, and later in the inning Landon Hernandez hit a sacrifice fly that scored Macdonald, giving the Rainbows a 2-1 lead.
The Rainbows added an insurance run on a Catricala single in the bottom of the eighth to take a 3-1 lead, and the Hornets were unable to take advantage of a lead off single by junior Gabe Jacobo in the ninth, falling 3-1.
Nicholas Rhodes (4-4) pitched a complete game for the Rainbows to pick up the win, allowing one run on six hits, striking out four batters while walking just one. Sophomore Trevor York (4-5) had a strong outing for the Hornets, allowing three runs on nine hits in seven innings of work, but in a losing effort.
In game two, the Hornets got the bats going from the start, as junior Hunter Martinez and Flores connected on singles in the top of the first, and were brought in on a three-run blast off the bat of senior Wes Oberlin, his 10th of the season, giving Sacramento State a 3-0 lead.
The Hornets added to their lead in the fourth with a sacrifice fly RBI by Blair, and pushed two runs across in the top of the fifth on back-to-back RBI walks by junior Blake Crosby and freshman Brent Hottman. Sacramento State then pushed the advantage to 7-0 in the sixth on a RBI single by Jacobo, scoring Flores, who had doubled earlier in the inning.
Hawai'i fought back, scoring a run in the bottom of the sixth on a RBI double by Greg Garcia before pushing two runs across the board in the bottom of the ninth on four straight hits to open the inning, cutting the lead to 7-3. They fell short, however, in the comeback effort, as Hornet junior closer Jeff Roth came on with a runner on and one out and induced a 6-4-3 double play to finish the contest.
Junior Brian Smith (3-1) picked up the win for the Hornets, pitching a gem of an outing, allowing just one run on five hits in seven innings of work. Matt Daly (5-3) picked up the loss, allowing six runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings pitched while walking five batters.
Flores went 5-for-9 at the plate on the day to pace the Hornets, which included a 4-for-5 effort in game two of the doubleheader with three singles and a double. Blair hit safely in game one of the doubleheader, but went 0-for-4 in game two, seeing his hitting streak end at 20 games, which ties him with sophomore Tim Wheeler for the longest hitting streak on the team this season. Macdonald went 5-for-8 on the day to pace the Rainbows, while Van Doornum went 4-for-8.
The two teams will close out the series with a single game on Sunday, May 4, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. Hawaiian time.
HONOLULU
