A two-run Stone Miyao home run in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the University of Hawaii baseball team a 13-11 walk-off season-ending victory over UC Santa Barbara at Les Murakami Stadium on Saturday night.
Hawaii ends its 2023 season at 29-20 overall and 18-12 in Big West Conference play, while UC Santa Barbara drops to 35-20 overall and 18-12 in conference games as well.
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Hawaii jumped out to a 9-2 lead through four innings on Saturday, but allowed the Gauchos to tie the game at 11 in the eighth inning.
Connor Harrison got the start for Hawaii and navigated the UCSB lineup twice, allowing two runs, four hits and a walk with two strikeouts in four innings.
From there, a combination of Dalton Renne and Tyler Dyball combined to allow nine runs (seven earned) over the next three innings. Alex Giroux was unavailable out of the bullpen for UH after throwing 62 pitches in four innings on Thursday in which he struck out nine with the game well in hand.
Tai Atkins tossed 1.2 scoreless innings of relief for Hawaii, preserving a tied game heading into the bottom of the ninth to earn the victory.
From there, Miyao ended the season of both teams with a two-run home run, his second long ball of the season, as well as his second is as many nights.
Also offensively, Sean Rimmer had a game-high four hits and RBI each for UH.
After winning the first two games of the series, the Rainbow Warriors eliminated the Gauchos from postseason contention.
UC San Diego won the Big West Conference regular season title at 21-9, but is ineligible for the postseason since it is in Year 3 of a four-year NCAA Division II to Division I transition period. It is instead Cal State Fullerton who takes the league’s automatic bid at 20-10. At 18-12, Hawaii finished two games behind CSUF in the conference standings.
After the game, Hawaii honored departing seniors Dalton Renne, Jacob Igawa, Cameron Hagan and Zach Losey. Matt Wong is also a departing senior but was honored during Senior Day in 2022.