Hawaii baseball: Rainbow Warriors denied series win at Vanderbilt on walk-off home run
The following appeared on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s breaking news:
Isaiah Thomas blasted a two-out, three-run homer in the 11th inning to lift second-ranked Vanderbilt to today’s 7-5 baseball victory over Hawaii at Hawkins Field in Nashville, Tenn.
FINAL: No. 2 Vanderbilt 7, #HawaiiBSB 5
UH (8-5) denied the series win over the defending national champions on Isaiah Thomas’ 3-run walk-off shot.
Carter Loewen takes the loss. pic.twitter.com/qRibOmKME2
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) March 1, 2020
The Rainbow Warriors were poised for the upset after tying it at 3-all on Matt Wong’s solo homer in the seventh, and scoring two runs in the top of the 11th.
#HawaiiBSB takes a 4-3 lead on No. 2 Vanderbilt on a fielder’s choice in the top of the 11th … 😳 pic.twitter.com/mOHYgciZcD
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) March 1, 2020
But against Carter Loewen, who earned the save for UH on Saturday, the Commodores closed to 5-4 on Austin Martin’s RBI single with one out. One out later, Dominic Keegan walked to put runners on first and second. Thomas, who homered in the fourth, drilled a 2-0 pitch from Loewen over the wall in left-center for the winner.
The ’Bows fell to 8-5 after winning just once in this three-game series against the defending national champions. The Commodores improved to 10-3.
I have three complaints…How do you pinch hit with the bases loaded with a batter who hasn’t been hitting all year? And you also leave in a starting player who has been really struggling and went 0-5 …And why is Logan Poulsen not hitting this year? He’s a better hitter than pitcher…Trap needs to go!
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That’s actually a solid point there, because Pouelsen’s last three starts as pitcher wound up as losses. Why isn’t he hitting is a different story. Personally, when he’s primarily pitching, his swing does tend to not be harder when he throws. Plus too, the 2B position he said was going to be a difficult one, as he wanted to find a matchup on there. He’s used Miyao, Campos and Ujimori in this early season, and it wasn’t going to be easy when offseason began, who was going to replace Lopez at the 3rd and Maaki at shortstop. I was surprised Demeter moved from 2nd to 3rd after his first year where he was shortstop. Trap had been busy over the course of the offseason, making so many choices that seemed questionable. But, there is one theory as to why Pouelsen isn’t hitting. His hitting percentage took a big dip from last year. He went from .268 to .203 from 2018 to last year. Why did he keep Baeza in despite an 0-for-5 outing? It’s his length at 1B. At 6’4″, that’s a pretty good height to be able to stretch the length for a quick infield out. I think the telltale story is how they tackle BWC play. That should tell the story of where Trap will go from here.
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Yes Poulsen hitting did take a dip, probably because he had to focus both on pitching and hitting instead of just one….I get what you’re saying about Baeza but he struggled in this series…Kaler, Demeter, and Wong are solid players ..I would like to see more of Calicdan even tho his base running this year has been sketchy…He had some big hits last year and led in average last year and has the experience as well..Miyao to me needs a year under his belt…Both catchers have also been struggling as well