Senior shortstop Ethan Lopez drove in three runs while Logan Pouelsen and Dylan Thomas combined on a three-hitter as Hawaii salvaged one win in its three-game Big West Conference baseball series at Cal Poly with a 4-1 victory Sunday inside Baggett Stadium.
Lopez singled to knock in a run in the first inning and drove in two more with a single to left field in the fifth, giving him five RBIs in the series.
Pouelsen (3-2) gave up one run and three hits over seven innings with no walks and three strikeouts for the victory. Thomas earned his fourth save with two scoreless, hitless frames.
Cal Poly fell to 22-22 overall and 12-3 in Big West games, tied for first place with UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos defeated CSUN 5-3 in Northridge, scoring two in the ninth to snap a 3-3 tie and pull even with the Mustangs.
Hawaii improved to 20-24 and 8-10. Cal Poly leads the series against the Rainbow Warriors, 16-5, since Hawaii joined the Big West in 2013 and has won all seven series, including sweeps in 2014 and 2015.
Lopez’s first-inning single gave Hawaii a 1-0 lead. Cal Poly tied the game in the fourth as Conagher Sands extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a one-out double down the right-field line and came home on a single to center field by Myles Emmerson.
The Rainbow Warriors took control of the game with three runs in the fifth. Brennen doubled to center field to break the 1-1 tie and the two-run double by Lopez made it 4-1.
After giving up the run-scoring single to Emmerson in the fourth, Pouelsen retired 11 Mustangs in a row before giving way to Thomas in the eighth. The Mustangs had a runner on base in both the eighth and ninth frames, but Thomas was able to secure the final outs in each frame without any damage.
The loss went to Mustang sophomore southpaw Andrew Alvarez (1-2) as he allowed all four runs and seven hits over 4 1/3 innings with no walks and two strikeouts. Michael Clark secured two outs and Taylor Dollard tossed four scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
Hawaii’s 10 hits included three singles by Scotty Scott, the single and double by Lopez and two singles by Tyler Best.
Sands’ double in the fourth gave him Cal Poly’s fourth longest hitting streak in its 25-year Division I history. The school record is 26 games by Ryan Lee in 2009.
Cal Poly’s only other hits Sunday were singles by Emmerson and Connor Gurnik. Emmerson was 6-for-11 with five RBIs in the series.
Cal Poly hosts Pepperdine on Tuesday at 5 p.m. The two teams will complete a game that was suspended March 12 with Cal Poly leading 11-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning. The regularly scheduled contest begins at 6 o’clock.
–Provided by Cal Poly
