HONOLULU – The Hawai’i baseball team dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season, falling to UConn, 18-10, in game three of the four-game series Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium.
The Hawai’i offense banged out 10 hits while scoring eight or more runs for the fourth straight game, but UH pitching surrendered 16 walks while hitting four batters.
Both teams struck for three runs in the first inning. After the Huskies scored three two-out runs in the top of the first, the Rainbow Warriors came back to tie it up in the bottom half. Matthew Miura put UH on the board, scoring from second on a wild pitch before Tai Walton singled home another run to make it 3-2. Kyson Donahue tied things up with an opposite field double to left, making it 3-3 after an inning.
UConn continued to add on, scoring four runs in the second, one in the third and two in the fourth while the ‘Bows managed just one run over that stretch on a Matt Wong homer, making it 10-4 after four innings.
Tai Walton got the Rainbow Warriors back in the game in the bottom of the fifth, smashing a three-run home run out to left center to trim the UConn lead to 10-7. The Huskies opened their lead up again in the seventh, scoring six runs to make it 16-7.
Sean Rimmer and Jared Quandt each came off the bench to deliver pinch-hit RBI singles in the bottom of the seventh, making it 16-10. Rimmer came through with a two-out, two-run single before Quandt added another with a base knock one batter later.
The loss snapped UH’s 10-game winning streak on Sundays dating back to last year, and is just the third time that Hawai’i has lost a Sunday game under head coach Rich Hill.
The ‘Bows and Huskies will wrap up the four-game series with a Monday night matchup at 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.
