Tribune-Herald
Tribune-Herald
So far rain has been the biggest positive for the Hawaii Stars in Northern California.
Maikel Jova’s one-out home run off reliever Michael Jackson in the 11th inning Friday night gave San Rafael a 5-4 victory over the Stars, who have lost three straight in the Pacific Association baseball series.
Jackson allowed a run for only the second time in nine appearances this season as the Stars couldn’t match zeroes with San Rafael’s bullpen. Jackson (0-1) went 2 2/3 innings — an out short of equaling his longest outing of the year — giving up two hits with five strikeouts.
Brenden Davis extended the Stars’ lead to 4-1 with a two-run home run in the top of sixth inning, but Matt Quintero hit a two-run shot in the bottom half of the inning of Onan Masaoka.
Masaoka pitched six innings and left in position to get the victory, but Darrick Hale’s RBI single off Brian Escanio tied it an inning later.
Dan Rogers (1-0) came through with four shutout innings of relief in his first appearance of the season for the Pacifics. He finished with seven strikeouts, allowing only two hits and a walk.
Hawaii (12-15) arrived in Northern California on a hot streak, winners of 11 of 13. But the series opener was rained out Tuesday, followed by two San Rafael victories in which Hawaii was only able to muster one run total.
The Stars didn’t take their first lead of the series until the third inning Friday on a Marshall McDonald bases-loaded ground rule double that scored Matt Hibbert and Dustin Smith, who each had singled. Hibbert and Smith finished with two hits and stolen a base apiece, but third-place Hawaii fell 7 1/2 games behind the front-running Pacifics (18-6).
Jova, last season’s league batting champ, finished with two hits and two RBIs, including a run-scoring single in the the fifth. Quintero was 2 for 3 and was hit by a pitch.
Masaoka, who had won his past two starts, allowed three runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts. In 31 innings of work this season, the one-time Waiakea High star and former major leaguer, has walked 21 batters and struck out 18.
Hawaii’s Katsuaki Furuki was 0 for 3 and has only one hit in the series, dropping his average 37 points to .366.
Christian Scholl didn’t have a part in the decision, but San Rafael has won all five of his starts. In six innings, Scholl yielded four runs, six hits, a walk and four strikeouts.
The series continues at 2 p.m. HST today and wraps up with a Sunday doubleheader.
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