April 1, 2012
Final Stats
HONOLULU - Evan Wolf struck out a career-high five batters in 4.1 innings of work, but UC Davis was limited to just two hits in a 7-1 loss to Hawai'i on Sunday in the series finale at Les Murakami Stadium in Honolulu.
UC Davis closes out the nonconference portion of the schedule at 11-13 while Hawai'i, which joins the Big West Conference beginning in 2013, improves to 17-12.
Ryan Allgrove and Paul Politi were the lone Aggies to record hits as Hawai'i starter Lawrence Chew earned the win to move to 2-1 on the year. Kyle Dowdy picked up his second save of the year, holding UC Davis hitless over three innings.
Wolf allowed three runs on three hits and walked two Rainbow batters to move to 0-2 on the year.
UC Davis scored first, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the third after John Williams' reached first when his grounder to short resulted in an error. Hawai'i shortstop Pi'ikea Kitamura fielded the ball cleanly, but his throw to first sailed high and Williams reached safely.
Williams came around to score when Ryan Allgrove hit a base hit into right field to give the Aggies a brief lead.
Hawai'i responded with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game at 1-1. Conner George drew a walk, moved to second on a ground ball by Billy Nottingham then reached third on Stephen Ventimilia's base hit into center field.
With two outs, Kitamura hit a hard shot towards the gap into left field, but Paul Politi made a diving save at third to smother the ball. His throw was just a step behind Kitamura, allowing George to score the tying run.
From there, however, Hawai'i took a 3-1 lead in the fifth after Nottingham and Ventimilia both scored runs, then tacked on a fourth run in the sixth after Breland Almadova doubled, then scored on an RBI groundout by Trevor Podratz.
The Rainbows took a 6-1 lead with two more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning then scored again in the eighth for the 7-1 final.
After scoring in the third inning, UC Davis was held hitless, but drew two walks and saw three Aggie batters hit by pitches.
UC Davis opens Big West Conference play on Thursday, Apr. 5 at 6 p.m. at Cal State Fullerton.
