Hawaii baseball rallies over Cal State Fullerton in season finale

Senior day started rough for the University of Hawaii baseball team, but the Rainbows rallied to beat Cal State Fullerton 5-2 in their season finale today.

UH — one of the hottest teams in the country — finished with a series sweep and victories in 18 of its last 20 games. Hawaii won its last 11 home games. A season-high turnstile crowd of 3,869 attended today’s game.

But the Rainbow Warriors, despite ending the season 37-16 overall, finished third in the Big West with a 20-10 record. It is unlikely they will advance to the NCAA Regionals.

The Titans fell to 16-38 and 7-23 in the conference.

Fullerton started today’s game with home runs by Nico Regino and Jack Schardt off Hawaii starter Connor Harrison.

UH came back with a run in the first and two in the second to take a 3-2 lead. Austin Machado and Elijah Ickes provided key doubles.

That’s where it stayed until the fifth, when Jake Tsukada doubled home Jordan Donahue, who had walked. Donahue then scored on Machado’s single to right, making it 5-2.

Meanwhile, UH reliever Zacary Tenn pitched 3 1/3 innings of shut-out ball, allowing three hits and striking out four with no walks to earn the win.

Itsuki Takemoto pitched the final 2 2/3 innings, allowing no baserunners, and striking out four of the eight batters he faced to earn a save.

After the game, UH seniors Randy Abshier, Tai Atkins, Naighel Ali’i Calderon, Nainoa Cardinez, Kyson Donahue, DallasJ Duarte, Tyler Dyball, Harrison, Blake Hiraki, Trevor Ichimura, Stone Miyao, Sean Rimmer, Tsukada and Aaron Ujimori were honored.