HONOLULU – The Hawai’i baseball team opened an eight-game homestand with a 9-4 win over intra-city rival Chaminade Tuesday night at Les Murakami Stadium.
The Rainbow Warriors fell into an early 4-0 hole but responded by scoring the final nine runs of the game to win their 25th game in the last 28 at home dating back to last year. UH used eight relievers who combined to shut out the Silverswords over the final eight innings with eight strikeouts while allowing just two hits.
Chaminade jumped in front early with four runs in the first inning, but the ‘Bows came right back with two runs in the bottom half and four in the second to take the lead.
Shunsuke Sakaino blasted a solo shot out to right to put UH on the board before Ben Zeigler-Namoa delivered a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 4-2. Draven Nushida drove in a pair of runs with single to center field to tie it up at four before Sakaino picked up another RBI with a base hit to put UH in front. Ickes capped off the scoring in the frame with a sacrifice fly, making it 6-4 after two.
The Rainbow Warriors added single runs in the third and fourth innings, scoring on RBI singles by Konnor Palmeira and Ickes to extend the lead to 8-4. UH added another run in the fifth when Will Bowen reached on a pinch-hit single and came around to score on a wild pitch.
Sakaino led the way offensively going 3-for-4 with two RBIs while smacking his first homer as a Rainbow Warrior and fourth of his career. Ickes also turned in a multi-hit and multi-RBI game going 2-for-4 with two runs driven in. Dylan Waite picked up the win throwing 1.1 innings with a strikeout while Joshua Surigao, Max Jones and Koen Barton each struck out two in their one inning of work each.
The Rainbow Warriors get set to host No. 15 UC Santa Barbara, beginning Friday at 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.
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