Hawaii falls short of Big West tournament with loss to Cal State Fullerton
IRVINE, Calif. — The University of Hawaii baseball season — and an era — came to a crashing conclusion on a cool Wednesday evening in Orange County. The Rainbow Warriors’ final season as a Big West member ended with 5-1 loss to Cal State Fullerton in the play-in game of the league’s postseason tournament at Anteater Ballpark on the UC Irvine campus.
On July 1, the ’Bows join 14 other UH programs in seceding from the Big West after 14 years and moving to the Mountain West. It ended with the league’s hottest pitcher, UH right-hander Isaiah Magdaleno, having what was admittedly not his best night. It ended against CSUF’s Mikiah Negrete, who once again mystified the ’Bows.
In March, Negrete shut out the ’Bows on two hits. On Wednesday, he pitched a six-hitter for his third complete game. UH coach Rich Hill said Negrete was a “buzzsaw.
” Negrete, a left-hander with a gyrating four-hitch delivery, carved the ’Bows with a slider that broke to the left or right at his command. “He had our number again,” Hill said. “That’s a complete game, (which is) hard to do in under 100 pitches.
He didn’t walk anybody. ” Negrete said the strategy was to keep the pitches down in the zone and mix sliders with heat to counter the ’Bows’ aggressive offense. “Hawaii has always been a team that likes to come out swinging and likes to do damage,” Negrete said.
Continue to the original source for the full article.