UH baseball teams, Manoa and Hilo, clash at Wong Stadium

UH-Hilo and UH-Manoa’s baseball teams clashed in an exhibition match, as the Rainbow Warriors broke away from a tie to plate 14 runs in the final four innings — defeating the Vulcans 15-2 on Wednesday night at Francis Wong Stadium in Hilo.

The mound was in a constant state of flux, with 18 total pitchers making appearances — eight for the Rainbow Warriors and 11 for the Vulcans. Three BIIF alumni made mound appearances — ‘Bows lefty and KS-Hawai‘i grad Tai Atkins, who pitched one inning of Wednesday’s outing, and Waiakea grads Ty Honda and Cody Hirata, who each pitched an inning for the Vulcans.

In addition to Atkins, Honda and Hirata, four more BIIF alumni played in Wednesday’s game — KSH grad Dallas Duarte (UH-Manoa), Konawaena grad Bronson Rivera (UH-Manoa) and former Waiakea teammates Stone Miyao (UH-Manoa) and Cody Min (UH-Hilo).

Manoa got on the board first, as Matthew Miura scored on Jake Tsukada’s sacrifice bunt in the top of the second inning. Hilo responded in the bottom third, when Reece Kadota walked then made his way home thanks to a pair of wild pitches and a fielding error.

The Rainbow Warriors got their momentum going in the sixth inning, as Elijah Ickes doubled for two RBIs. In the next inning, Kyson Donahue hit a solo homer and Miura scored on a wild pitch, increasing Manoa’s lead to 5-1.

In the eighth, Miura doubled to bat in Duarte, Ickes and Donahue. Control completely slipped away from the Vulcans in the top ninth inning, as the ‘Bows plated seven runs — including a three-run homer by Jared Quandt. In that frame, Miyao scored a run and Duarte doubled to bat in a run — later scoring a run.

UH-Hilo refused to go down without one last run, as Chris Varljen doubled to bat in Trent Jackson.

Ickes went 3-for-4 with a walk at the plate, notching one run and three RBIs. Donahue went 2-for-2 with a walk to score three runs and plate two RBIs. Miura went two-for-three with two walks, scoring two runs and batting in three.

Varjen led UH-Hilo at the plate, going 1-for-1 with a RBI.

Manoa out-hit Hilo 10-4 and the Vulcans’ pitchers gave up a total of 12 walks and five HBPs on the outing.

Tyrus Stephens started things off on the mound for UH-Hilo — and went two innings with a strikeout, surrendering a hit and an earned run. Patrick Atkinson was tagged with the loss in his first appearance of the season.

Danny Veloz earned the win for Manoa, as he struck out two and walked one while surrendering no hits or runs in his two innings.

UH-Hilo freshman Mark Fedro also saw his first action of the season, making the start at third base and getting the Vulcans’ first hit of the game with a lead-off single in the fifth inning.

This was the first matchup between the two UH schools since 2021 ,when they clashed three times. The last time the Rainbow Warriors made the trip to the Big Island was in 2016.

UH-Manoa plays in NCAA Division I’s Big West Conference while UH-Hilo is a member of Division II’s Pacific West Conference.

The two teams will meet again on O‘ahu for the Vulcans’ season finale on April 30 at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Rainbow Warriors will also play televised exhibition games this season against the PacWest’s Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade.

UH-Hilo moved to 8-10 overall (1-3 PacWest) while UH Manoa moved to a 4-4 record with no conference outings played yet.

The Vulcans return to conference action today — hosting doubleheaders at 3 p.m. today and Saturday at Wong Stadium against Biola (8-5-1 ovr.) for the Eagles’ PacWest-play opener.

Friday’s games include a Vulcan-branded Stadium Cup Giveaway.

The Rainbow Warriors will continue their early season with a four-game non-conference series against Holy Cross from Friday through Monday.