Marshall Baseball falls to 0-4 against the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors to open the season.
“A tough weekend on the field,” baseball head coach Greg Beals said. “We played a very good Hawaii ball club who played clean defensively and on the mound. Offensively, they took advantage of their opportunities, and we helped them too much as well. Hawaii had 17 two-out RBI to our three. We need a to find a way to win the big moments in a game.”
The Herd was able to be strong in the first and third games of the series building max leads to 5-0 and 6-3 respectively before ultimately losing both games to walk off hits.
“On the positive side, there were several things I liked,” Beals said. “I think our offense is going to be strong. We hit a lot of balls hard. We simply need to be more consistent and get the big hit. Defensively, outside of the few errors we had, we made several very good plays and, overall, played solid defense. On the mound, we had a strong start from Griffin Miller and other strong outings. We need to throw more strikes and control the running game better.”
In game one, preseason Sun Belt Team award winner Bryce Blevins pitched 5.0 innings allowing three runs on six hits and three walks to start his season. Tyler Kamerer and Ethan Murdoch hit back-to-back home runs in the second. Murdoch would then homer again in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the ninth, Hawaii’s Draven Nushida singled to right field, causing Xaige Lancaster to score to get the walk-off win to open the season.
In game two, Murdoch launched his third homer of the series to lead off the top of the fifth, but unfortunately, the Herd would never have a lead in the game. The final score was 6-2 in the Rainbow Warriors favor.
In game three, starter Griffin Miller pitched 5.0 innings giving up three runs, only one earned, on six hits to keep Marshall fighting for a win, but unfortunately, the Herd experienced déjà vu with another walk off hit, this time by Shunsuke Sakaino, who hit single causing Ben Zeigler-Namoa to score, giving the Rainbow Warriors another walk-off win.
In game four, Marshall experienced a blowout loss 10-2. Pitchers Luke Proehl and A.J. McAninch made their Herd debuts, with both of them having perfect outings, with Proehl throwing a perfect 1.1 innings, and McAninch striking out the only batter he faced.
During his Marshall debut, Maika Niu hit over the .400 mark with a .412 batting average with seven hits in 17 at bats, including a pair of doubles and a triple.
Sakaino led the Rainbow Warriors during the weekend finishing the series batting .583 with seven RBIs and five runs scored, including a walk-off single Saturday. Nushida went 4-for-9 with five RBIs over the weekend as well.
Hawaii’s sweep now gives them a current winning streak of nine wins dating back to last season, making them the highest current winning streak in Division 1 baseball.
The Herd looks for its first win of the season with a four-game series at Mac Nease Baseball Park in Atlanta against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The series begins Friday, Feb. 21, at 4 p.m.
Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected].
