Tribune-Herald
Tribune-Herald
Playing the first-place San Rafael Pacifics was a little different than beating up semi-pro teams from San Francisco for the Hawaii Stars, who saw their seven-game winning streak snapped on the road.
After winning six straight games at home against the East Bay Lumberjacks and Santa Rosa Rosebuds, Hawaii’s hot streak ran into a cold roadblock.
Hawaii forgot to bring its healthy bats and managed just two hits in a 7-1 loss to the Pacifics in a Pacific Association baseball game on Wednesday in San Rafael, Calif., to kick off a six-game series and 12-game road trip.
Tyler Parson fired seven innings of one-run ball, limiting the Stars to two hits and two walks while whiffing 10. AJ Gallardo and Colin Allen finished off Hawaii, each throwing a scoreless inning.
Maikel Jova, last year’s batting champion, went 2 for 5 with two RBIs to lead the Pacifics (16-6), who pounded out 11 hits.
Dallas Mahan (2-1, 2.11 ERA) took the loss in six innings. He allowed four runs on seven hits and two walks, and struck out six. Michael Kenui gave up three runs in an inning and Reece Alnas pitched a scoreless inning.
Second baseman Dustin Smith went 1 for 4 and new pickup right fielder Mitch Levier was 1 for 3 with an RBI to lead Hawaii (12-13).
Brendan Davis and Tyler Krobetzky went hitless, ending their hitting streaks at 10 games. Marshall McDonald went 0 for 3, stopping his streak at eight games. Anthony Williams had his hitting streak end at six games.
Levier, 25, was picked in the ninth round of the 2008 Major League Baseball draft by the Oakland A’s. He played five seasons in the minor leagues, reached Advanced Single-A ball, and finished with a .240 batting average in 261 games.
On Tuesday, the Stars signed Levier and Caleb Hatcher, 21, an infielder who wasn’t drafted and played college ball at Southern University. Hawaii also put pitchers Ronnie Loeffler and John Holley on the inactive list.
On Sunday, after the series against the Santa Rosa Rosebuds, the Stars traded third baseman Glenn Walker to the Shinano Grandserows of Japan’s Baseball Challenge League, a semi-pro team. In return Hawaii received pitcher Brooks Belter, 25, a right-handed pitcher drafted in the 25th round in 2011 by the Tampa Bay Rays.
Belter pitched for Occidental (Calif.) College and spent only one season in Tampa Bay’s farm system. Last year, he pitched in the Frontier League, based in Indiana, and went 10-3 with a 3.52 ERA in 107 1/3 innings.