Thunderstruck by Triumph, Team of Rainbows Slay Struggling Opponents in Epic Showdown
By baseball’s present-day standards, Isaiah Magdaleno didn’t throw exceptionally hard Friday. But with one exception, he was quite hard to hit. The Hawaii right hander recovered after allowing a first-inning home run to dominate Long Beach State as the Rainbow Warriors crushed the Dirtbags 11-1 in UH’s first road game of the season.
It certainly helped that after the hosts’ second batter, Jake Evans, hit a solo shot to put them ahead, the ‘Bows came right back with six runs in the second inning. The victory at Blair Field in Long Beach, Calif. , was also Hawaii’s first Big West win of its final season in the conference before moving to the Mountain West next year.
It comes after absorbing a three-game sweep last week against Cal Poly. UH improved to 10-7 overall. The Dirtbags fell to 0-4 and 4-13.
Magdaleno (2-1 ) cruised through six innings, with just the one hiccup. He struck out nine and walked one while allowing four harmless singles after the homer. He threw 107 pitches, with 63 of them strikes.
He completed the outing with a flourish, striking out all three batters he faced in his final inning. “Mags was vintage Mags, ” Hill said. “Nine strikeouts with no pitch over 89 (mph ).