HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii baseball team will wrap up its 2014 season this weekend with a three-game Big West Conference home series vs. UC Riverside. ADVERTISING HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii baseball team will wrap up its
HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii baseball team will wrap up its 2014 season this weekend with a three-game Big West Conference home series vs. UC Riverside.
The series will feature single games at 6:35 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday at Les Murakami Stadium. Saturday’s game will be followed by the traditional “Senior Day” festivities to honor Matt Cooper, Conner George, Scott Kuzminsky, Kalei Hanawahine, Austin Wobrock, Adam Hurley, Marc Flores, Jerry Kleman, Josh Elms and Tyler Young – each of whom will be making their final appearance in a UH uniform.
The Rainbow Warriors (20-30 overall, 4-17 Big West) are coming off a two-games-to-one series loss at UC Davis. Cooper, a right-handed pitcher, evened his record at 5-5 by pitching seven and two-thirds innings, allowing only one earned run with seven strikeouts and two walks in a 2-1 victory in the series opener.
Cooper is only five strikeouts away from becoming the 15th pitcher in school history to record 100 strikeouts in a single season. Cooper’s 1.64 earned run average would rank as the fourth-lowest by any starting pitcher in UH’s history.
Heading into this final series of the season, Hurley continues to lead the team in batting with a .309 average. Flores is at .302 with a team-leading five home runs and 41 runs batted in, and junior Kaeo Aliviado is hitting an even .300 with a team-leading 32 runs scored.
UC Riverside (25-26, 11-10) is coming off an 8-6 non-conference victory over Grand Canyon. Last weekend, UC Riverside lost two of three Big West games to Long Beach State.
NGUYEN LOSES IN NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND: Rainbow Wahine freshman Cindy Nguyen lost her NCAA Tournament first-round match to No. 12 seed Breaunna Addison of Texas, 7-5, 6-2, on Wednesday at Athens, Ga.
Addison, a sophomore, was named Big 12 Player of the Year. She took a 3-0 lead in the first set but Nguyen rallied to eventually tie it at 4-4. It was tied again at 5-5 before Addison won the final two games to take the set.
In the second set, Nguyen fell behind 4-0 and could not close the gap.
“Cindy did a great job and I’m really proud of how well she competed,” said UH coach Jun Hernandez. “She had a strong showing and had lot of chances, but she was competing against a tough opponent who is ranked No. 12 in the nation. She fought hard all match and hopefully she will learn a lot from the match and the experience of playing in the NCAA Tournament. It is quite an accomplishment for her as a freshman to go this far.”
Nguyen had won 11 straight matches before Wednesday and finished the season at 22-5. She is the first Rainbow Wahine ever to compete in the NCAA Tournament.
