Baseball ’Bows fall at Long Beach, ending 11-game win streak

The Hawaii baseball team’s 11-game winning streak ended today in a 4-3 loss to Long Beach State at Blair Field on the LBSU campus.

The Rainbow Warriors tied it at 3 in the eighth inning when Kyson Donahue doubled to center and then came home on Matthew Miura’s single to left.

But in the bottom of the eighth, shortstop Armando Briseno smacked a 380-foot homer over the fence in left-center. Briseno’s third homer — all at Blair — was measured at an exit speed of 102 mph. Since April 16, in a span of 17 games, Briseno has raised his average from .221 to 312.

In the ninth, right-hander Mike Villani retired the side on six pitches — all strikes — for his ninth save.

In losing the opener of a three-game set, the ’Bows missed a chance to earn their fourth consecutive sweep of a Big West series. The ’Bows fell to 32-16 overall and 15-10 in the Big West. The Dirtbags improved to 24-25 and 8-16 under interim head coach Bryan Peters.

Donahue, Miura and Jared Quandt each had two hits for the ’Bows.

Alex Giroux, who allowed three hits in four innings of relief, suffered the loss to drop to 6-3.

The teams meet Saturday at 3 p.m. Randy Abshier, who has allowed five hits in 13 1/3 scoreless innings his past two games, will start for the ’Bows.