Three down, three to go.
In its third elimination game in less than a week, the University of Hawai‘i baseball team stayed alive with a 16-4 rout over host Cal State Fullerton on Friday night. The Rainbow Warriors (35-20) move on to Saturday, while Cal State Fullerton's season ends at 29-27.
Hawai‘i will take on Cal Poly in another elimination game at noon HST. The winner of that game would have to defeat top-seeded UC Irvine twice to win the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Rainbow Warriors, who were edged by UC Irvine on Thursday, led 5-2 through six innings on Friday, but erupted for 11 runs in the final three innings. Jordan Donahue hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning, while Kamana Nahaku added a solo shot in the next at-bat.
"We're playing free and easy," Hawai‘i head coach Rich Hill said after the game. "We're a scary team to deal with right now."
In all, the 'Bows totaled 19 hits. On the mound, Sebastian Gonzalez got the start and held the Titans to one run in four innings, while Cory Ronan got the win after recording four outs. From there, All-Big West closer Isaiah Magdaleno did the rest of the pitching, striking out three in 3.2 innings of work.
"Not a lot of adjectives that can describe our performance in every facet today," Hill said. "I thought it all started with (Gonzalez). He's a fiery competitor and handed it off to Cory. He was a little tired but was able to throw the breaking ball for a strike and get us to the situation where our MVP, Magdaleno, took control.
"On the bases, I thought we did a great job, our dugout was electric and offensively, that's 19 hits, 16 runs, home runs, clutch hitting, two-out hitting, just an overall great performance."
Despite the team's large 16-4 lead in the ninth inning, Hill decided not to conserve Magdaleno, who finished with a total of 59 pitches. That workload does not put Magdaleno's availability for Saturday in doubt, according to Hill.
"We'll see how he feels tomorrow," Hill said of Magdaleno. "I'm sure he'll want the ball at some point."
In Friday's previous Big West tournament game, UC Irvine defeated Cal Poly 15-3 via the run rule in seven innings, setting up Saturday's elimination game between the Rainbow Warriors and Mustangs.
"The message is not to make it too big," Donahue said. "We all know what needs to get done but ultimately slowing it down and taking it pitch by pitch, not getting caught up in the bigger picture."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
