UH-Hilo’s baseball team got a one-stop sneak peek at its two opponents this season, and the reviews, unsurprisingly, showed stark differences.
Hawaii pounded Hawaii Pacific all over Les Murakami Stadium in a four-game demolition that was completed Sunday in Honolulu, outscoring the Sharks 46-6 while accumulating 56 hits to put up a double-digit run total each game.
The Rainbow Warriors looked like they were making up for lost time.
“We’re just so happy to be back and just playing again,” UH right fielder Tyler Best told Tribune News Service of navigating through the pandemic. “It’s amazing. It’s a blessing.”
The Vulcans open the season Friday night in Honolulu against UH (5-2), before playing the Sharks in 12 doubleheaders as part of PacWest pod play.
All four upcoming games at Murakami – a doubleheader is scheduled Saturday – will be televised on Spectrum Sports, and fans will find no shortage of familiar faces on both sides, including five contributing Big Island ‘Bows.
Freshman Safea Villaruz-Mauai, a former Waiakea standout, ripped his first career double Sunday, driving in two runs for the second consecutive day in a 10-0 victory.
On Saturday in a 10-2 win, the 6-foot-1, 240-pound Villaruz-Mauai went 3 for 4, including a two-run single, lifting his average to .308 (4 for 13) at designated hitter while appearing in six games.
“We expect great things from him in his career here,” coach Mike Trapasso told Tribune News Service.
Hawaii used six pitchers Sunday. Li’i Pontes, a junior, made his first start in two years, escaping a two-out, bases-loaded ham when 5-10 second baseman Stone Miyao, a 2019 Waiakea grad, soared to silence Micah Layosa’s screaming line drive to end the first inning.
“Hey, he’s athletic,” shortstop Kole Kaler said of Miyao to Tribune News Service. “He has to make that play.”
Miyao also registered his first two RBIs of the season with a single through the right side in the eighth to fuel a six-run rally, finishing 2 for 5. Besides offering a steady glove in three starts, he’s 4 for 13.
In the series opener Thursday, UH got just what was looking for from Aaron Davenport, who reaffirmed his ace status with a mesmerizing five-hitter over seven innings. Davenport worked fast (a pitch every sub-11 seconds ) and furiously (13 strikeouts ). He fanned 10 in the first five innings. Of his 97 pitches, 68 were for strikes.
“He had good stuff, and he threw three pitches for strikes, and he continued to mix throughout the whole time,” Trapasso said of the junior right-hander. “He was very business-like in his approach, as he usually is. I thought he was outstanding.”
Former Kamehameha-Hawaii standout Dallas Duarte hit a three-run double down the left-field line in the fourth of the 12-1 victory. Making four starts at catcher, Duarte also helped guide Austin Teixeira through his seven shutout innings Saturday, going 2 for 4 at the plate with an RBIs hits and two runs scored.
“All the pitches were working,” Texeira said after striking out eight. “In the ’pen (during warm-ups), it felt great. Great catcher. (Duarte) kept me in check, reminding me I needed to follow through, and throw to the glove. The catcher got me through that.”
After a day off Sunday, Duarte will enter the Vulcans series 4 for 12.
In UH’s 14-3 triumph over HPU on Friday night, former two-time BIIF Division II player of the year Tai Atkins (Kamehameha, 2019) made his first appearance of the season. Atkins came in for Cade Halemanu and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the third inning, but then created his own in the fifth, and the left-hander was lifted after the Sharks tied it at 3-3. In 1 1/3 innings, Atkins yielded a run on two hits and walk with two strikeouts.
Center fielder Adam Fogel powered the Rainbow Warriors in the first two games of the series, driving in the go-ahead run in the sixth and clubbing a three-run double in a nine-run seventh Friday. Fogel, a California native, showed a complete recovery from a shoulder injury that limited him to 10 games in 2019 on Thursday, going 4-for-5 with three RBIs. Fogel’s two-run blast in the opening inning was his first homer since Feb. 16, 2019. He was used exclusively as a designated hitter in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Jacob Igawa, a 2018 Waiakea grad, made his only appearance of the series Thursday at designated hitter (0 for 3, run scored) in what was his second start of the season. Igawa, who transferred after playing 12 games for the Vuls last season, also can play left field. He had a two-hit, two-RBI game at Arizona State.
