HONOLULU, O'ahu - Max Duval's RBI single in the bottom of the seventh broke a 1-1 tie as the Dons fell to Hawaii, 3-1, Saturday night at Les Murakami Stadium. Starting pitcher Abe Bobb did his job going 6.2 innings and allowing just two runs, but the bottom half of the Rainbow (13-7, 0-0 WAC) lineup came through late against San Francisco (10-10, 0-0 WCC).
The Dons took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jason Mahood. With two strikes, Mahood was able to loft a ball into deep center field allowing Bradley Zimmer to score from third. Zimmer was hit by a pitch to lead off the third and eventually wound up stealing third, his first stolen base of his collegiate career.
Hawaii answered quickly with a single run in the bottom of the third courtesy of an RBI single from Breland Almadova. Almadova's run-scoring base hit knotted the game at 1-1 after three innings of play.
The game would remain tied into the seventh inning as Bobb held the Rainbow bats at bay for the majority of the evening. Bobb gave way to senior left-hander Jordan Remer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and Remer retired the lone batter that he faced via strikeout to keep USF within reach, 2-1.
The Rainbows plated an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, scoring on an RBI base hit from third baseman Collin Bennett. After striking out in three straight at-bats, Bennett singled through the left side to plate Stephen Ventimilia and put Hawaii in front, 3-1.
Brent Harrison retired the Dons in order in the top of the ninth to ensure at least a series split for Hawaii.
Freshman left-hander Christian Cecilio takes the ball for the Dons in the Sunday finale tomorrow at 4:05 p.m. PST.
