With a chance to advance further in the Big West Conference tournament and earn more breathing room in the competition's double-elimination format, the University of Hawai‘i baseball team was edged 7-5 by UC Irvine on Thursday afternoon in Fullerton, Calif.
The Rainbow Warriors dropped to 34-20 overall and will play in Friday's elimination game at 4 p.m. HST against an opponent to be determined. The contest will be Hawai‘i's third elimination game over the course of a week. The 'Bows clinched a spot in the Big West tournament with a rout over UC San Diego on Sunday, then defeated UC Santa Barbara in Wednesday's play-in game.
On Thursday, the 'Bows faced a hefty test in UC Irvine, a team currently ranked as high as No. 11 nationally by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. The Rainbow Warriors entered Thursday losers of eight straight to the Anteaters, a streak that dates back to 2023.
"Tip your cap to UC Irvine," Hawai‘i head coach Rich Hill said in the postgame press conference. "They're very well-coached. I love our guys. I think we out-hit them. ... Just put together solid at-bats every inning, didn't seem like they had a 1-2-3 inning all night. We got some grinders on the team."
UCI scored six runs in the first two innings against UH on Thursday, pushing its streak over the 'Bows to nine. Itsuki Takemoto got the start on the mound and took the loss for the 'Bows after surrendering four earned runs in his one inning.
For the second straight day, Lahaina native Ben Zeigler-Namoa hit a 3-run home run for the Rainbow Warriors, which cut UCI's lead to 6-5 in the seventh inning. Hawai‘i was not able to score after that, as UC Irvine reliever and Big West Pitcher of the Year Ricky Ojeda improved to 13-0 despite giving up the big fly to Zeigler-Namoa.
"Faced Ojeda earlier in the year and he had a lot of success against us, so obviously we had to make some adjustments. For me, my adjustment was just to see it a little more down and stay on top of it," Zeiger-Namoa said. "I got the pitch I wanted and caught a barrel and fortunately, it got out."
Max Martin earned his 14th save of the year after recording the final five outs for UCI.
Hawai‘i will play the loser of Thursday evening's contest between Cal Poly and host Cal State Fullerton.
"It's all about just toughness," Zeigler-Namoa said. "All the coaches instill it in us. We're a tough ball club. I think we ultimately stick together no matter what and I think teams don't want to see us right now, either. We're sticking through it, we're grinding day by day and we're just excited we get to play another day tomorrow."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
