’Bows baseball team maintains Big West position despite losses

The Hawaii baseball team lost a game and a three-game series but not any ground in its quest for a berth in the Big West Tournament.

UC Davis shortstop Elijah McNeal doubled home a run to break a 1-all tie in the sixth inning and catcher Ryan Lee added an RBI single for insurance in the Aggies’ 3-1 victory at Dobbins Stadium on the UCD campus.

A crowd of 371 saw the Aggies win the final two games of the series to remain alive in the chase for a berth in the five-team league tournament. It also was the Aggies’ final home baseball game as a Big West member. The UCD and UH baseball programs move to the Mountain West on July 1.

UH and Cal State Fullerton entered Sunday tied for fourth in the Big West. After the Titans fell to Cal Poly on Sunday, both teams held that spot at 14-13.

Both teams are 1 1/2 games ahead of UCD (14-16) and two in front of UC Irvine (12-14), which lost to UC Riverside on Sunday. But UCD has completed its 20-game Big West season.

The Rainbow Warriors need to win one of three games against Cal State Northridge in this week’s final series of the regular season to clinch a tournament berth. The ’Bows hold the tiebreaker over Fullerton and Irvine.

Tate Shimao singled home Noah Rodriguez to stake the ’Bows to a 1-0 lead in the third inning. But they could not take advantage of several scoring opportunities. The ’Bows hit into double plays in the sixth and seventh innings.

With Noah Rodriguez on third with no outs in the fifth, a pitch bounced off Lee’s catcher’s mitt. Lee retrieved the ball, and fired to pitcher Braydon Wooldridge, who tagged out a sliding Rodriguez at the plate. In hindsight, it appeared Rodriguez misread the play.

“That’s part of our follow-the-rules,” said UH baseball coach Rich Hill, who doubles as the third-base coach. “With no outs or one out, you’ve got to be standing up. You’ve got to stomp the plate. He took off and I was kind of shocked. I thought he saw something I didn’t because it went off the catcher’s glove. We didn’t have an angle. It was right in line with us. I really couldn’t see the depth. I thought maybe he saw something different than I did. It was not the way we draw it up.”

That was a blip in a larger problem during the series.

“Basically all weekend, that was kind of the issue,” Hill said of missed opportunities. “Leaving guys in scoring position, hitting into double plays, popping balls up. I thought we played great defense. I thought our pitching was outstanding all weekend. We had some base running miscues the last couple games. Overall, Davis pitched lights out and we were unable to come through.”

Right-hander Brody Martin-Grudzielanek had another strong start for the ’Bows. He allowed four hits and struck out six through the fourth inning.

In the fifth, Lee walked and, two outs later, came home on Zach Story’s run-scoring single.