HONOLULU – Behind yet another stellar pitching performance and a big day offensively, the Hawai’i baseball team extended its winning streak to eight games and finished off a sweep of CSUN with a 9-1 victory Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium.
Three Rainbow Warrior pitchers combined to hold the Matadors to a run on seven hits while striking out seven to complete an incredible weekend for the ‘Bows on the mound. Harrison Bodendorf got the start and went 5.2 innings with six strikeouts and held CSUN hitless over his first 4.2 innings of work. Connor Harrison pitched the next 1.1 innings before turning it over to two Brayden Marxwho worked two shut out frames to finish it off.
The ‘Bows put up a run in the first inning when Dallas Duarte lined a two-out RBI single to left center. Matthew Miura made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly in the third before Jake Tsukada’s two-run single highlighted a three-run fourth to make it 5-0.
CSUN broke Hawai’i pitching’s 20-inning scoreless streak with a run in the fifth inning to make it 5-1. Harrison entered with the bases loaded and two outs in the frame and got the final out, narrowly avoiding giving up a game-tying grand slam that was initially ruled a fair ball but overturned upon further discussion.
UH tacked on four more runs in the seventh inning to break it open. Austin Machado blasted a towering two-run shot down the right field line to make it 7-1 ahead Matthew Miura delivered a run-scoring double to put Hawai’i up 8-1. Elijah Ickes capped off the scoring with a two-out RBI single for his third hit of the day.
Hawai’i pitching finished an incredible weekend with a 0.67 ERA and 24 strikeouts to just six walks while allowing just two earned runs on 16 hits. The ‘Bows also held the Matadors to a .168 batting average after they came into the weekend tied for second in the conference hitting .292. On the year, CSUN has been held to two or fewer runs in a game six times, with three of them coming in the three games against the ‘Bows.
Tsukada and Ickes each turned in three-hit games with Ickes going 3-for-3 with a run and RBI while Tsukada finished 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Machado’s homer was his fourth of the season and gave him a team-high 40 runs batted in on the year.
The Rainbow Warriors continue their homestand with a three-game series vs. UC Riverside starting Thursday at 6:35 pm at Les Murakami Stadium.
