UC San Diego routs Hawaii in series finale

After dropping the first two games, the UC San Diego baseball team rebounded for an 11-2 rout of Hawaii in today’s series finale at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Tritons, who entered the weekend atop the Big West standings, exited in second place at 22-12 overall and 11-4 against league opponents. The Rainbow Warriors are 16-13 and 6-6.

The Tritons took advantage of UH’s first-inning mistakes to score two unearned runs. A four-run second extended the Tritons’ advantage to 6-0.

“I thought the guys responded really well today,” UCSD coach Eric Newman said. “Obviously, we faced a little adversity (in losing 1-0 and 17-8), and I thought we handled it much better today. And we came out and played with some poise, but also some urgency that we didn’t necessarily show particularly Friday and Saturday. And we got the pitching performance that we needed as well.”

Starter Aren Alvarez, who pitched the first two innings, and Nic Gregson did not allow a hit until Jordan Donahue’s one-out single in the sixth. Matt Wong and Jacob Igawa had RBI singles, but that was all the offense the ’Bows could muster.

“They took advantage of a couple miscues,” UH coach Rich Hill said, “got behind early, and they really pitched well.”