Baseball@Murakami 2020-03-06

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GoBows2014
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Baseball@Murakami 2020-03-06

Post by GoBows2014 »

Weather on Oahu today was absolutely dismal. Constant passing showers, high winds, brief moments of sunshine followed by more rain. And rain? Try torrential downpours dropping over 1" in 15 minutes causing zero visibility, flooded roads, and knocking out crucial traffic lights and signals, jamming traffic all over the island.

By every measure the weather at Murakami Stadium should have been terrible or the game rained out completely. Against all the odds, the stadium was dry and pleasant the entire night, brisk breezes before sundown turned into gentle trades by game time, and there was no rain during the entire game, just light mist now and then out of Manoa. Crowd was very light, smallest of the season, maybe 400+ diehards showed up.

As good as the weather turned out to be, the game was not much of a contest due to great pitching and early run support by UH. Aaron Davenport,with his win against US#1 Vandy in his back pocket, pitched his buns off, striking out batter after batter. Superb pitching by #24 and really fun to watch, AD was notching K's every innings and ended up with 9.

And the BaseBows sure brought the bats tonight, lighting up the Duck's starting pitcher for hit after hit, run after run. Either Oregon has a shallow bullpen or their coach just wants to leave starters in to see their mettle, it was nearly batting practice for much of the early innings. We batted the order in the 2nd and never let up, score was 6-0 after 2.

Odd thing was, as good as #24 was in the first two innings? In the bottom of the 2nd, the entire lineup was hitting, we got lots of runs, but it was a *looong* inning in the dugout. Aaron's arm was sure cold when he came out to start the 3rd inning. He had lost his rhythm, his pitches weren't working, and it took several batters before he could get a few outs and get back in the groove. Trap never hesitated, just let Aaron do his thing, and man was that a great call. After giving up a few runs early in the 3rd, Aaron got his mojo back and from then on it was K-City, smoking batter after batter for the next several innings! Goose eggs for Oregon in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, mostly K's and most batters caught looking.

Bows up early 6-2, padded that with 1 run in the 5th, another big inning with 4 in the 6th, and 2 more in the 7th. Then relief pitching and defense both got a bit sloppy in the 8th and 9th, pretty much matching lots of earlier miscues by Oregon throughout the game. Overall, a *huge* win for Aaron Davenport, some work to do for Trap and our 2nd stringers (Matt Campos put on a show with some great glove work at 2nd and adequate batting, others might need some practice). Final score 13-5 coz we gave up 3 runs in an error-filled 8th inning.

Oregon, after getting beat Thursday night up and up, got a thorough butt-whup tonight. They have to be wondering which end is up going into Saturday and Sunday games. Coming atcha' @Murakami stadium 6:35 PM Saturday and 1:05 PM Sunday. Go Bows!

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