LIVE BLOG: Hawaii 9, Hofstra 3, F

It hasn’t been the series Hawaii hoped. UH needs to sweep both games of today’s doubleheader against Hofstra just to win the series as the Pride have beaten UH twice by one run. Hawaii has waited far too long to get its offense going in this series, scoring nine of its 14 runs in the seventh inning or beyond.

Here’s last night’s recap.

Brewster improves to 2-0 with a seven-inning complete game as Hawaii wins the first one 8-2. Aliviado gets his second homer in as many days and Ventimilia scores three runs with four walks. Game 2 updates will follow below with Game 1 below that.

—————————————————————————————————

GAME 2

Hofstra
Dalton Rouleau, SS
Eric Ferguson, RF
Brad Witkowski, 2B
Mat Annunziata, DH
David Leiderman, 3B
Ryan Donovan, 1B
Steven Foster, CF
Chris Weiss, C
Jake Fallon, LF
RHP Nick Kozlowski

Hawaii
Stephen Ventimilia, 2B
Jonathan Weeks, SS
Kaeo Aliviado, CF
Eric Ramirez, 1B
Jordan Richartz, DH
Alan Baldwin, C
Matt Miller, RF
JJ Kitaoka, 3B
Matt LoCoco, LF
RHP Kyle Von Ruden

Baldwin gets the catching nod over Jondal with Matt Miller going to right and LoCoco moving over to left. Kitaoka starts at third base over Sawelson, who is 0-for-14 in the series.

TOP 1: Hofstra comes out strong as Rouleau rips a double to the gap in left-center and Ferguson reaches out and pokes a ball up the middle for a single. Witkowski with a deep drive to right to bring in Rouleau on the sac fly and Witkowski makes it to second. Leiderman gets up 2-0 on Von Ruden with two outs and singles to right to bring home Ferguson. Donovan then rips a base hit up the middle. Four hits in the first for the Pride, who score 2.

Looks like we have an issue with a piece of turf near second base that has been ripped off. Hofstra has been waived off the field. The three umpires are just standing at first base. Finally the grounds crew tends to it. Ventimilia comes to bat after about a 10-minute delay.

BOTTOM 3: ALIVIADO DOES IT AGAIN! He crushes a ball for a three-run jack. Line drive that just gets over the fence to put UH ahead. Third homer in three games. Huge day for Aliviado. Six straight batters end up reaching base as Baldwin finds a spot in shallow center to bloop in a two-run single. Kitaoka’s first career hit is a run-scoring single up the middle to score Baldwin and that’s it for Kozlowski. Bowie Matteson in. Ventimilia adds to the lead with a two-out RBI single to center and Hawaii has its first seven-run inning of the year.

Matt Miller’s RBI single in the fourth made it 8-2. Got caught up doing some research. Aliviado is the first UH player to homer in three consecutive games since Jeff Van Doornum in 2010. Van Doornum hit his in the WAC championship game against Fresno State and the first two regional games against San Diego and Arizona State. His regional homers came off USD’s Kyle Blair (a fourth round pick) and ASU’s Seth Blair (first round supplemental).

Also worth of note. UH hit 58 homers that year (2010). Since then, UH has hit 48.

Back to the game…

TOP 5: Von Ruden retires 11 in a row before Fallon’s out-out double. Rouleau singles to left and Fallon tries to score but LoCoco throws him out from left. Another one for the UH defense.

TOP 6: Hofstra loads the bases with two outs and Von Ruden is done after 5 2/3 innings. Matt Valencia comes on in relief. Four straight balls from Valencia walk in a run before Rouleau flies out to right.

Final line for Von Ruden: 5 2/3 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K.

BOTTOM 6: Richartz with a sac fly to score Aliviado, who drew a leadoff walk. Baldwin’s third hit is a double to the wall in left but Ramirez is thrown out at the plate easily.

Valencia allows one hit, one walk and strikes out one in 2 1/3 innings of relief. Josh Pigg comes in for the ninth and strikes out the first two in seven pitches before a two-out walk. Witkowski pops out to Pigg and UH wins to take the doubleheader and the series.

—————————————————————————————————

GAME 1

Hofstra
Dalton Rouleau, SS
Steven Foster, CF
Brad Witkowski, 2B
Mat Annunziata, LF
David Leiderman, 3B
Ryan Donovan, DH
Brian MacDonald, 1B
Eric Ferguson, RF
Niko Hagerty, C
RHP Adam Heidenfeider

Hawaii
Stephen Ventimilia, 2B
Jonathan Weeks, SS
Kaeo Aliviado, CF
Eric Ramirez, 1B
Jordan Richartz, DH
Alex Sawelson, 3B
Alan Baldwin, LF
Chayce Ka’aua, C
Matt LoCoco, RF
RHP L.J. Brewster

First game will be seven innings unless it goes to extras.

TOP 1: A two-out walk is erased when Ka’aua throws out his fifth base stealer in 10 official tries. Such a nice weapon to have.

BOTTOM 1: Aliviado does it again. A two-run homer to right puts UH ahead 2-0. Second homer in as many days for Aliviado. He’s just the second player in the last three years with multiple home runs in a season for UH (Marc Flores) and he now has more homers in his last four at-bats than his first 620. Baldwin adds a two-out RBI single on an 0-2 pitch as UH gets three in the first.

BOTTOM 2: Heidenfeider is out after one inning for the Pride. He walked five. Aliviado with his third RBI on a grounder to first. Pitcher misses the base for an error. Ramirez bloops a single into left to score Weeks. Bases loaded for Sawelson, who grounds into the 4-6-3 double play. Aliviado scores on the play.

TOP 5: Leadoff single is just the second for the Pride off Brewster. Ka’aua throws him out trying to steal second and the inning is over. Brewster has faced one over the minimum through five.

BOTTOM 5: UH manufactures a run after Richartz draws a leadoff walk. He steals second and takes third on the errant throw before Ka’aua’s sacrifice fly brings him in. 7-0.

BOTTOM 6: Ventimilia has now walked in all four plate appearances. Ramirez with the sacrifice fly to left to score Ventimilia and it’s 8-0.

TOP 7: Brewster at 67 pitches through six innings but starts the seventh with an eight-pitch walk and two singles as Hofstra loads the bases with nobody out. Donovan lifts a fly ball to center but the runner at thirds holds as Aliviado fires a strike back to the mound. Brewster with his fourth strikeout for the second out. Ferguson down to his last strike and bloops a ball to shallow right that falls just inside of the line. Two runs score. That’s too bad for Brewster. He comes back to strike out Hagerty for his fifth K to end it.