Comeback Falls Short in Game Two of Big West Championship

FULLERTON, Calif. – The Hawai’i baseball team fell into an early hole then rallied in the late innings before ultimately falling to No. 20 UC Irvine, 7-5, in its second game of the Big West Championship Thursday.
 
The Rainbow Warriors will now play an elimination game Friday at 4 p.m. HT against the loser of the Cal Poly-Cal State Fullerton game. Friday’s elimination game will be UH’s third win-or-go-home game in its last four contests.
 
The Anteaters struck early and often, scoring three runs in the first inning before striking for three in the second sandwiched around a two-run Hawai’i second inning to make it 6-2 early on.
 
UH got its runs in the second via four consecutive hits, the last two of which came on a Kamana Nahaku RBI double and a Draven Nushida run-scoring single.
 
The Hawai’i bullpen did a great job of keeping UH in the game, holding the Anteaters to just one run over the final seven innings. Liam O’Brien and Ethan Thomas each delivered scoreless outings in relief, with O’Brien working three frames and Thomas the next 2.1 to keep the ‘Bows within striking distance.
 
UH would fight back in the seventh, when Ben Zeigler-Namoa hit his second three-run homer of the weekend to pull the Rainbow Warriors within a run at 6-5. The Anteaters added a key insurance run in the ninth, striking with two outs in the frame to make it 7-5.
 
Zeigler-Namoa and Jordan Donahue helped pace the UH offense, with Donahue going 3-for-4 with a run scored while Zeigler-Namoa’s homer was his seventh of the season and second three-run bomb in as many days.