The Hawaii baseball team made all the right moves in Saturday’s 5-3 victory over Cal State Bakersfield at Hardt Field on the CSUB campus.
From crafting a starting lineup of seven right-handed hitters and a switch hitter to rolling with right-handers Hekili Robello and Brody Martin-Grudzielanek, head coach Rich Hill found effective combinations as the Rainbow Warriors evened the three-game series at a win apiece.
“That’s the name of the game,” Hill said in a telephone interview. “Find a way to win.”
Robello allowed three runs in 62⁄3 innings. Martin-Grudzielanek, who made the move to closer a week ago, earned the seven-out save.
With Roadrunners at the corners with two outs in the eighth, Hill made a mound visit with the intent of calming Martin-Grudzielanek. It turned into a brainstorming session.
“He was the one who brought it up to me on the mound,” Hill said. “He said, ‘I think I can pick this guy off.’”
Martin-Grudzielanek picked off pinch runner Taison Miller at first base to end the eighth inning.
“I thought that pickoff move was super athletic,” Hill said. “He’s a converted shortstop.”
In protecting a two-run lead in the ninth, Martin-Grudzielanek was instructed to go with the sizzle and not the breaking pitches.
“It’s a high spin-rate fastball that’s tough to see,” Hill said. “Guys have a hard time finding it. We just stuck with that and it ended up being good.”
Martin-Grudzielanek relinquished a leadoff single to open the CSUB ninth, then struck out the next three.
The ’Bows entered having scored a run in back-to-back losses.
‘You score one run in 18 innings and get shut out, everything’s on the table,” Hill said of not starting left-handed-hitting Draven Nushida, Christan Hoffman and Kody Watanabe. “I wanted to see what that right-handed lineup looked like.”
Hill praised CSUB’s left-handed starter, Ethan Minaker.
“I thought their guy did a good job, actually,” Hill said. “He’s got that really good changeup and a low batting average against righties. I wasn’t super convicted about it once the game started. We were able to flip it to the lefties (later in the game).”
The ’Bows scored the game’s first run on Kamaehu Sanchez’ RBI double.
The ’Bows added two more in the fifth when Tate Shimao was plunked with the bases loaded and Evan Rolbiecki followed with a run-scoring fielder’s choice.
The ’Bows added insurance runs in the seventh when Ben Ziegler-Namoa dashed home from third on a wild pitch and Shimao scored on Nushida’s opposite-field single to left. Nushida had worked the count to 3-0 when he was given the green light to swing away. Nushida, who entered as a pinch hitter and then moved to left field, made a catch off a sprint to quell a Roadrunner threat.
“He had a big play at the (left-field) line that won’t show up in the box score,” Hill said.
Hill also said the ’Bows benefited from a pregame meeting “where we talked about everything. We called it ‘leave evidence.’ That’s the way the world works. You tie purpose to the process.”