March 30, 2012
Final Stats
HONOLULU - Dayne Quist struck out nine batters in seven innings of work while Tino Lipson went 3-for-5 and scored two runs to lead UC Davis to a 5-3 win over Hawai'i on Thursday at Les Marukami Stadium in Honolulu.
UC Davis moves to 11-10 on the year after claiming the first of a four-game series. Hawai'i suffered its fifth straight loss to drop to 14-12.
Quist allowed just two runs on four hits after giving up a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, but walked just one batter in another commanding performance on the mound.
The Aggies started out strong in the win, putting up three runs in the first inning. Kevin Barker was hit by a pitch to lead things off, marking the 21st consecutive game that UC Davis has been hit by a pitch, before Lipson, David Popkins and Paul Politi all singled to load the bases with nobody out. Barker scored the first run on Politi's base hit.
Nick Lynch would be hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in Lipson and Popkins scored the final run of the inning on a groundout from Scott Kalush.
Quist walked and hit a batter in the first, but settled in to retire the side in the second while UC Davis took a 4-0 lead on Lynch's first triple of the season. His long fly ball into right field got under the glove of a diving Zack Swasey and rolled all the way to the wall, allowing Lynch to reach third on a stand-up triple. He would score on Kalush's sacrifice fly.
Quist retired the side again in the third, before giving up a base hit to Swasey to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Trevor Podratz then took a 3-2 pitch over the wall in right center field to cut the Aggie lead in half at 4-2. The senior lefty, however, struck out Cody Clark to end the inning.
He struck out two of the three batters he faced in the fifth, then struck out the final two Hawai'i batters in the sixth inning. Quist opened the seventh with his ninth strikeout of the game and retired the side before being replaced by Patrick Hennessey in the eighth.
The Aggies took a 5-2 lead in the fifth when Lipson led off with a base hit into center field, then scored on an error by Hawai'i third baseman Collin Bennett. Kalush's soft grounder went right to Bennett, but he stalled on the throw, then forced Max Duval at first off the bag with his errant toss, allowing Lipson to score.
Hennessey gave up a run in the eighth to bring the score to 5-3 in favor of UC Davis after walking the first batter he faced. Breland Almadova drew the walk, then moved to third on a pair of groundouts before scoring when Pi'ikea Kitamura singled into right centerfield.
Harry Stanwyck relieved Hennessey and struck out Podratz for the final out of the inning. He then retired the side in the bottom of the ninth, striking out the first two batters he faced, to secure UC Davis' 5-3 win.
Quist improves to 4-0 on the season while Stanwyck picked up his second save of the year. Hawai'i starter Matt Sisto drops to 4-3 overall after giving up five runs on nine hits in eight innings of work.
Lipson reached base in all five at bats, reaching twice on errors by the Hawai'i defense. Politi went 2-for-4 with an RBI. David Popkins was 1-for-5 with a run in his first appearance since Mar. 10.
UC Davis and Hawai'i continue the series on Friday with a 9:35 p.m. (PDT) first pitch.
