Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team was looking to snap a seven-game losing streak Thursday evening, but couldn't quite generate enough offense, falling, 4-2, to visiting Hawai'i in the first game of a three-game Big West Conference series.
Starting pitcher Ricky Delgado (0-2) gave the Highlanders (12-17, 1-6) a much-needed boost, facing the minimum nine batters through the first three innings. He was aided by his defense which turned a pair of double plays during that stretch.
Unfortunately, Hawai'i starter Brendan Hornung (5-2) matched Delgado pitch for pitch, putting up zeroes in his first three innings as well.
The Rainbow Warriors ended up getting to Delgado in the fourth, loading the bases with one out on two singles and a walk. A wild pitch brought home Hawai'i's first run of the game.
Colby Schultz helped the Highlanders tie the score in their half of the inning thanks to a lead-off triple to right center. Connor Cannon drove him home, lining the first pitch he saw to center field for an RBI-single.
Hawai'i (20-11, 2-2) broke the tie the very next inning, as three of the first four batters Delgado faced reached on singles, making it 2-1 Rainbow Warriors.
Nick Shur came on in relief of Delgado, and recorded the final two outs of the frame to get out of the jam. Shur allowed a lead-off single in the top of the sixth, but got the next three batters in order.
He wasn't so fortunate in the seventh. Alex Fitchett laced a double down the left field line to start of the inning, and advanced to third on an infield single by Logan Pouelsen. That ended Shur's evening, as Jared Morton came on in relief. Morton got Johnny Weeks to hit a grounder to short, but it was slow enough to enable Fitchett to score Hawai'i's third run of the game.
It remained a 3-1 game until the top of the ninth, when the Rainbow Warriors tacked on an insurance run on a Dylan Vchulek sac fly.
The Highlanders rallied in the bottom of the inning, putting runners on the corners with one out. Casey Worden lifted a pinch-hit sac fly to left, scoring Cody Sporrer, to slice into the Hawai'i lead, but Mark Contreras' fly ball to left ended the game.
The Highlanders and Rainbow Warriors play game two of their three-game series on Friday beginning at 6 pm PT.
