UH baseball team falls again, but doesn’t lose its playoff position
The Hawaii baseball team lost a game and a three-game series but not any ground in its quest for a berth in the Big West Tournament. UC Davis shortstop Elijah McNeal doubled home a run to break a 1-all tie in the sixth inning and catcher Ryan Lee added an RBI single for insurance in the Aggies’ 3-1 victory at the Dobbins Stadium on the UCD campus. The Aggies won the final two games of the series to remain alive in the chase for a berth in the five-team league tournament.
It also was the Aggies’ final home baseball game as a Big West member. The UCD and UH baseball programs move to the Mountain West on July 1. UH and Cal State Fullerton entered Sunday tied for fourth in the Big West.
After the Titans fell to Cal Poly on Sunday, both teams held that spot at 14-13. Both teams are two games ahead of 12-15 UC Irvine, which lost to UC Riverside on Sunday. The Rainbow Warriors need to win one of three games against Cal State Northridge in this week’s final series of the regular season to clinch a tournament berth.
The ’Bows hold the tiebreaker over Fullerton and Irvine. Tate Shimao singled home Noah Rodriguez to stake the ’Bows to a 1-0 lead in the third inning. But they could not take advantage of several scoring opportunities.
They hit into double plays in the sixth and seventh innings. In the fifth, a pitch bounced off Lee’s catcher’s mitt. Lee retrieved the ball, and fired to pitcher Braydon Wooldridge, who tagged out Rodriguez at the plate.