Hawai'i
Cal Poly Falls to Hawai'I 6-3 in Big West Series Opener
4/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
HONOLULU, Hawaii – Taking advantage of three Cal Poly errors, Hawai'I earned a 6-3 victory in the opener of a three-game Big West Conference baseball series Friday night in Les Murakami Stadium.
Cal Poly led 2-0 in the first three innings before Hawai'I scored two unearned runs in the fourth inning. The game was tied at 3-3 in the eighth when the Rainbow Warriors parlayed two hits, a pair of walks, a Mustang throwing error and a wild pitch into three runs en route to the win.
Hawai'I improves to 6-1 in Big West games and 17-15 for the season while Cal Poly falls to 19-13 and 2-2.
An RBI double by Brett Barbier and a Hawai'I throwing error in the outfield gave Cal Poly its 2-0 lead in the third inning.
Hawai'i tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out throwing error in the infield and took a 3-2 lead in the fifth. Cal Poly tied it in the seventh on a run-scoring single by Barbier.
That set the stage for the bottom of the eighth when Hawai'I grabbed the lead for good with three runs. All three were earned despite the throwing error on a potential double play.
The win went to Matt Valencia (2-0), the third of three Hawai'I pitchers used in the game. Starter Brendan Hornung allowed just two runs and seven hits over six innings with one walk and two strikeouts.
Sophomore southpaw Kyle Smith (4-3) suffered the loss, giving up four runs (two earned) and eight hits over 7 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts and one walk.
Cal Poly outhit Hawai'I 11-10, led by the top three hitters in the order who combined to go 7-for-14. Alex McKenna (pictured above) had three hits and Kyle Marinconz and Barbier each added a pair of hits, as did Nick Meyer.
Matt LoCoco, Jacob Sheldon-Collins and Marcus Doi each had two hits for Hawai'i.
Second game of the series is scheduled for Saturday night at 9:35 p.m. PDT with sophomore right-hander Erich Uelmen (4-0, 2.77 ERA) on the mound for Cal Poly.
