HONOLULU – The Hawai’i baseball team stretched its home winning streak to seven with a dominant 17-1 win over UC Santa Barbara to open the final series of the regular season Thursday at Les Murakami Stadium.
The Rainbow Warriors (27-20, 16-12 Big West) fell behind 1-0 in the first, but scored a season-high 17 runs while banging out 18 hits. Pitchers Harry Gustin and Alex Giroux each struck out a career-high nine batters to give UH a season-high 18 punch-outs, holding the Gauchos to a run on eight hits.
Matt Wong smacked a pair of opposite-field home runs and finished 3-for-3 with three walks and three runs scored, becoming the first UH player since Feb. 16, 2019 (Adam Fogel) to hit multiple homers at Les Murakami Stadium. Wong also reached the 10-homer mark on the year, making him the first Hawai’i player to hit double-digit long-balls in a season since 2010 (Jeff Van Doornum – 14).
The Gauchos (35-18, 18-10 Big West) got on the board with a run in the first, but the ‘Bows answered by exploding for nine runs over the next two innings to bust it open. Wong led off the second inning with an opposite field shot to tie it up before Aaron Ujimori gave UH the lead with a one-out single. Dallas Duarte stretched the lead two batters later with a two-run single and later came around to score on a wild pitch, making it 5-1, and Stone Miyao capped off the six-run frame with an RBI single.
Wong continued the onslaught in the third, leading off the inning with his second opposite field homer to make it 7-1. After a pair of two-out singles put runners on the corners, Jordan Donahue came through with an RBI ground-rule double, before Duarte beat out an infield hit to score another, making it 9-1 after three.
TWO BOMBS FOR MATT WONG
HR No. 10 on the year makes it 7-1! #GoBows pic.twitter.com/xbAXwApVG3
— Hawaii Baseball (@HawaiiBaseball) May 26, 2023
The Rainbow Warriors busted it wide open with five runs in the sixth to build a 14-1 lead. Jacob Igawa opened the scoring with an RBI single to center before another run came in on a double play. Ujimori followed with his second RBI of the game on a single to left before two runs came in to score on an infield hit off the bat of Donahue, one on the hit and another on an error.
UH finished the rout with three runs in the eighth, one on a Donahue RBI single and two more on an Igawa two-run base knock.
Donahue turned in his best offensive game of the year, going 4-for-5 with a double and three RBIs while Ujimori had a season-high in hits, going 3-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs. Igawa went 2-for-6 and drove in three runs, giving him a hit in 19 of the last 20 games and multiple hits in the last six. Miyao extended his hitting streak to eight games going 1-for-3 with an RBI.
Hawai’i pitching continued to dominate at home, holding an opponent to three or fewer runs for the sixth straight time at Les Murakami Stadium and eighth time in the last 11 at home. UH also has a 2.00 ERA in the last seven home games with 63 strikeouts in 63.0 innings over that span.
The two teams continue their series Friday night at 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.