LIHU‘E — Jeffrey Van Doornum went 3-for-4 with three RBI, two runs and a homer, the University of Hawai‘i-Manoa men’s baseball team won its first Western Athletic Conference tournament title in 18 years, and are up early this morning to
LIHU‘E — Jeffrey Van Doornum went 3-for-4 with three RBI, two runs and a homer, the University of Hawai‘i-Manoa men’s baseball team won its first Western Athletic Conference tournament title in 18 years, and are up early this morning to see where they will play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association regional playoffs.
They beat the Fresno State Bulldogs 9-6 in Mesa, Ariz., in the WAC championship game at Hohokam Stadium Sunday, and will learn their first stop when NCAA regional pairings are announced on ESPN at 6:30 a.m. today, states information on the UH athletics website.
The UH Rainbow baseball team (33-26) secured the win for Sam Spangler (5-6), who allowed one run in 3.1 innings before Lenny Linsky picked up his 12th save of the year, allowing no earned runs in 2.2 innings.
Collin Bennett was 2-for-4 with one RBI, a double and a run for UH, as he broke the WAC Tournament record for hits with 13. Kevin Macdonald was 2-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored while David Freitas ended up 2-for-5 with one RBI. Kolten Wong doubled and scored while being walked intentionally twice.
Derek Benny (1-3) took the loss for Fresno State.
This is the first WAC title for the Rainbows since 1992 and clinches UH’s first appearance in an NCAA regional since 2006.
Van Doornum got the offense started in the bottom of the first, hitting a monster shot to center field, clearing the 40-foot hitter’s eye in center field, to give UH a 1-0 edge. The homer traveled an estimated 470 feet over the huge wall that is listed at 410 feet from the plate.
Fresno State answered with two runs in the second before Garcia and Wong teamed up for a beautiful double play, keeping UH within a run at 2-1. The ’Bows then got it going in the bottom of the inning as Macdonald, Matt Roquemore, Pi‘ikea Kitamura and Van Doornum all drove in runs, pushing Hawai‘i to a 5-2 edge.
The Bulldogs answered with an unearned run in the top of the third to get it to 5-3 before the two pitching staffs settled the game, putting up six consecutive zeros on the board.
Then the Rainbows got it going again in the bottom of the sixth as Kitamura and Van Doornum both drove in runs, pushing their lead to 7-3.
Fresno State made their run late, scoring a run in the seventh before two Rainbow errors led to two runs by the Bulldogs in the top of the eighth, cutting the UH lead to 7-6.
In the bottom of the eighth Freitas and Bennett drove in two insurance runs for the final arithmetic, 9-6.
In the ninth, Linsky retired the first two batters before allowing back-to-back hits to put runners on second and third. He then induced a ground ball up the middle that went off his glove to Greg Garcia, who threw out the Bulldog runner to end the game.
