HONOLULU — It could take something close to perfection for the Hawaii baseball team to rally its way back into the Big West Conference title race over the next few weeks.
For at least one night, Alex Giroux was game.
Giroux tossed five flawless innings of relief – at one point striking out six batters in a row – and Jordan Donahue gave the Rainbow Warriors just enough to work with offensively in a 3-2 series-opening win over Cal State Northridge at Les Murakami Stadium on Friday night.
UH (27-15, 10-9 Big West) surged back above .500 in conference play with its season-best sixth straight victory and ended the nine-game winning streak of CSUN (28-15, 14-5), which got knocked out of a first-place tie.
The ‘Bows dugout was abuzz after Giroux set down all 15 batters he saw.
“That was unreal. That was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen,” said Donahue, who delivered two hits in two-out situations to drive in all three UH runs. "That was huge. We needed that big time."
Said coach Rich Hill, “Oh my gosh, yeah, there’s not the proper adjectives to describe what he did tonight. What was it, six strikeouts in a row, eight strikeouts total? Didn’t give up a baserunner. That’s a first-place team that can really hit. Man, stunning performance.”
Giroux (5-2), the right-handed junior from Lake Oswego, Ore., came out for the start of the fifth after freshman Sebastian Gonzalez made his second start and gave up six hits and two runs (one earned) over four innings. UH had a one-run lead thanks to Donahue’s single to left-center to score Naighel Ali‘i Calderon in the fourth.
“Everything felt good. Ball was coming out of my hand really well, it was going where I wanted it to,” Giroux said. “I really had confidence in all my pitches today.”
In particular command was his cutter, which he throws in the low 80s.
“It was probably the best it’s been all season, throwing it as hard as I could and it was finding places where they weren’t touching it,” he said. “I was able to throw my sinker off that, get the outside corner, got a couple guys looking. Kind of had everything going. It was a good night.”
From the last out of the fifth to the first two outs of the seventh, Giroux set down Matador batters at the plate.
He had two comparable outings last year, his first season at UH as a transfer from Washington: five innings of hitless relief with one walk, a hit batsman and one strikeout at Tony Gwynn Stadium in San Diego; and four innings of relief against UC Santa Barbara with nine strikeouts and no walks at the Les.
The latter was the closest night he could remember to Friday.
It was the second time in 2024 that UH pitchers struck out at least 12 batters without issuing a walk.
With three teams – CSUN, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara – with five losses or fewer in Big West play, UH still has plenty of work to do to either get close to the leaders or put itself in position for consideration for an NCAA at-large bid.
“If we make a run, maybe we get into range. Maybe we win it,” Hill said. “All I care about is tomorrow night.”
Game 2 of the series is 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium. Members of the 2024 class of the UH Sports Circle of Honor will be introduced on the field before the first pitch.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.