The University of Hawaii baseball team avoided a Big West series sweep against UC Santa Barbara, outlasting the Gauchos 13-9 in 13 innings on Sunday afternoon.
Sunday’s contest lasted over five hours, which was the longest game for UCSB in the 2022 season. Hawaii, however, previously played a 15-inning game that lasted six hours and 14 minutes against San Diego State in February.
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Hawaii, which lost its two previous games against UCSB over the weekend, improves to 9-16 overall and 3-6 in Big West Conference games. The Gauchos, meanwhile, drop to 18-7 overall and 7-2 in Big West games.
On Sunday, the Rainbow Warriors took a 7-6 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth inning on Dallas Duarte’s two-RBI single, but couldn’t secure the victory in regulation after Christian Kirtley’s RBI double to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth.
After the two teams exchanged three scoreless innings in extras, the Rainbow Warriors broke the game open with six runs in the top of the 13th inning, led by an Aaron Ujimori single and Stone Miyao double.
Kyson Donahue and Ujimori each had three hits for the ‘Bows, while Miyao had a game-high four RBI. Additionally, Ujimori hit a solo home run in the top of the fifth inning, good for the first round-tripper of his college career.
Cameron Hagan got the win for Hawaii after taking over in the ninth inning with one out, doing the rest of the pitching for the ‘Bows with seven strikeouts, four hits and three walks in 4.2 heroic frames. Buddie Pindel got the start for Hawaii and got the no decision after allowing three runs and five hits in three innings.
Alex Schrier took the loss for UCSB after surrendering UH’s go-ahead runs in the 13th.
Next up for Hawaii is a one-off nonconference game at USC on Monday, which begins at 3 p.m. HST.
