Honolulu, HI—The UC Riverside Baseball Team dropped both ends of a double header against Hawai'i Sunday, falling 2-1 in the first game, and 5-4 in the night cap.
The losses dropped the Highlanders into a tie with UC Irvine in seventh place in the conference standings.
| Big West Standings |
| Team |
W |
L |
Pct |
| Cal State Fullerton |
14 |
4 |
.778 |
| Long Beach State |
11 |
7 |
.611 |
| UC Santa Barbara |
10 |
8 |
.556 |
| Cal Poly |
9 |
9 |
.500 |
| CSUN |
10 |
11 |
.476 |
| Hawai'i |
10 |
11 |
.476 |
| UC Riverside |
8 |
10 |
.444 |
| UC Irvine |
8 |
10 |
.444 |
| UC Davis |
4 |
14 |
.222 |
|
|
|
|
In game one, the Rainbow Warriors grabbed the early lead thanks to a lead off double in the first by Matt LoCoco, a sac bunt and a Eric Ramirez RBI ground out to first.
UC Riverside picked up the equalizer in the top of the second on a single to left by Casey Worden which scored Aaron Cisneros who singled three batters earlier.
It remained a 1-1 game until the seventh as Highlanders starter Ricky Delgado (0-7) allowed just three hits form the second through the seventh. Hie counterpart, Alex Hatch, was just as effective, giving up six hits and two walks in his 6.2 innings of work.
Lawrence Chew (1-4) recorded the final out of the top of the seventh, and in the bottom half of the frame, the Rainbow Warriors regained the lead. Kekai Rios doubled to right center to lead off the inning, and after Delgado struck out Ethan Lopez, Chayce Ka'aua singled to left to make it 2-1 Hawai'i.
Matt Valencia tossed 1.2 innings of scoreless relief to pick up his third save of the season.
In the nightcap, the Highlanders held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 before Hawai'i plated a single run in the fifth and three in the sixth.
Angel Landazuri (4-5) went 5.1 innings, allowing three of the runs, while Hazahel Quijada and Keaton Leach gave up a run each. Jared Morton, Jacob Worrell and Ryan Lillie combined to throe 2.2 innings of hitless relief, but the damage was already done.
The Highlanders tried to rally in the ninth, and Vince Fernandez's two-out homer cut the lead to one, but that was all the offense UCR could muster.
UC Riverside returns to the Plex this week for a Tuesday, May 17 games against San Diego State, and a three-game weekend series against Cal Poly.
