Hawaii lost on Monday, but its defense kept the game from being lopsided
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Look at just the scoreboard, and one sees that Hawaii lost to Henderson, Nevada in Monday's game at Lamade Stadium, 3-2, in an exciting game. But to those who watched the game, there was something that stood out more than the final score.
That would be Hawaii's stellar defensive effort throughout the game.
Yes, Hawaii lost, but had Hawaii's infielders not played as superb as they did from the get-go, the game would have gotten out of control fast.
Just two batters into the game, Nevada's Russell McKee hit a hard shot to the second baseman of Hawaii, Kolten Magno. Magno made a great snag to rob the hit, which proved big because a batter later, Wyatt Erickson reached on a double, which would have driven a run in early.
Gauge Pacheco had an outstanding throw from left field in the top of the second to get Dominic Laino out on his way home for the second out, helping limit the runs to just one that inning.
In the third inning, Nevada's Gunnar Gaudin reached on a walk. Gunner Beranek drilled a hard line-drive a second later to second where Hawaii was able to turn the double play and shift momentum with a 1-2-3 inning following another ground out.
"Gunnar leads off with a walk and Gunner Beranek comes up who can fly and he hits a two-out ground ball to second base and I think 'there's no way they can turn it' and sure enough, boom boom. They play great defense too," Nevada manager Adam Johnson said. "Two pitches later, Caleb Gomez hits a smash ground ball into 3-4 hole and that will be on SportsCenter tonight, I can guarantee you that much."
That SportsCenter-like highlight came from Magno, who robbed Gomez of what would have been an easy single.
Hawaii manager Daniel Buldoc declined to attend the press conference after the game.
Had Hawaii not played well, the three runs allowed could have easily been six or more.
Hawaii threw Cam Kaneshiro (2 innings) and Gauge Pacheco (4 innings) in the game. And while Nevada only collected five hits, the Mountain Regional champions did see six batters reach via walks and tried taking advantage, but Hawaii's defense did its best to limit that damage.
In the final three innings, Nevada stranded a total of six runners on base, including leaving the bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning.
"Noah (Letalu), a lot of times in that situation ((with bases loaded), may be like ahh and swing at those balls but he was a patient hitter an credit to him for working the walk," Johnson said as Letalu's walk put Nevada ahead for good. "These guys just continue the next-man up (mentality) because we believe good things happen when we do that as a team."
In the top of the fourth inning, Nevada had two runners reach, both on singles, but Hawaii had a another solid defensive play at second for the third and final out to prevent a run and in the bottom of that inning, Hawaii tied the game up.
In the fifth, Nevada had a runner reach third after getting on base via an error, but Hawaii's Hayden Takahashi made a tag at first for the second out on a grounder and catcher Matthew Yang got the third out with a throw to first.
Entering Monday's game, Nevada knew they had a tough task at hand facing Hawaii, a team that plays solid defense and can hit the ball.
"I think they're a talented team and they're well-coached and we know through the history of this tournament, they've been able to really dominant teams. We know they're a team that's not going to beat themselves," Johnson said. "Honestly our styles of play mirror each other where they bunt, we bunt. … But I think our games complement each other and we felt it'd be a low-scoring game where we were going to have to play good defense and rely on good pitching and Gunnar (Gaudin) was outstanding, I can't say enough good things about him."