HONOLULU — Fridays continue to be a difficult day of the week for the Hawaii baseball team in 2022.
The Rainbow Warriors were up against it early this week as national powerhouse Vanderbilt kept the pressure on in a 9-2 win in front of a sold-out Les Murakami Stadium.
UH (4-5) had to scratch starter Cade Halemanu due to a finger blister, then dropped to 0-3 in series openers this season after going to a platoon of pitchers. It will have a chance to get back in the series in Saturday’s doubleheader beginning at 1:05 p.m., with regular Saturday starter Andy Archer ready to go for the afternoon game.
The No. 5 Commodores (7-2) were impressive both on the mound, where ace Chris McElvain struck out a career-high 13 batters in seven innings for the win, and at the plate, where three ‘Dores blasted home runs to left half of the ballpark – a sight rarely seen in one evening at Les Murakami.
“Hey, I was surprised,” UH coach Rich Hill acknowledged with a laugh of the long balls by Carter Young, Dominic Keegan and Tate Kolwyck. “I could give you the standard answer, but I’ve been coaching here a little while now and we have a hard time hitting a ball out of left field. They certainly didn’t tonight. Different kind of weather today – it really wasn’t humid, the trades were kind of rocking. (The Commodores) hadn’t shown that this year, but they do have the firepower. They’re a very well-rounded team. Extremely balanced. But it all starts with their pitching.”
Hill credited McElvain for taking the energetic crowd of 3,681 (4,405 tickets issued) out of it as much as possible with his 93 mph fastball from an unusual arm angle. From there, he went to his slider to keep the Rainbows guessing and yielded only three hits on the night; he retired 12 straight men from the fourth through seventh innings.
Still, most of the crowd stuck around to the finish, even with UH falling behind 7-0 after a five-run third for Vanderbilt.
UH got its runs in the third on an RBI groundout by Kyson Donahue and a wild pitch score from third by Scotty Scott.
The Rainbows got the last of their four hits on a single through the gap by Cole Cabrera in the ninth, only the second time they got their leadoff man aboard. But Donahue grounded into a double play and Bronson Rivera struck out looking.
“The roar of the crowd in the ninth inning, they were awesome,” Hill said. “I thought it was an electric atmosphere from the first pitch.”
Halemanu was scratched after being bothered by blister-like swelling on his right middle finger the night before, Hill said. After clipping the nail, the swelling improved but he was unable to go; the team hopes to have him for the series finale Sunday.
Sophomore Tai Atkins made his first start of the season in Halemanu’s stead, giving up four hits and two earned runs in 1 2/3 innings in being tagged with the loss.
Junior right-hander Dalton Renne supplied 4 1/3 innings of relief. He gave up two of the home runs but struck out six in helping keep the UH bullpen intact for the rest of the weekend.
“I think Dalton Renne really saved us tonight,” Hill said.
The 6-foot-7 Renne, who was lightly used last season coming out of Chemeketa (Ore.) Community College, has seen his workload ramp up steadily through the first few weeks this season.
But Vanderbilt, the 2019 national champion, was a different beast.
“I think we just didn’t get ahead (in counts),” Renne said. “If we get ahead, we can use our offspeed and keep them off-balance. But you saw what they can do tonight. You miss your spot, they’ll make you pay. That’s the kind of team they are.”
At 2 hours and 58 minutes, it was by far the most brisk game at the Les so far this season after a series of four-hour-plus marathons in the opening series against Washington State.
Hill said after Archer starts the seven-inning first game Saturday, Li‘i Pontes will likely get the nod for the ninth-inning nightcap.
