One skipped pitch turned a tense Monday night in Manoa into a walk-off party, as Elijah Ickes slid across the plate to seal a 4-3 win for Hawai'i over Gonzaga at Les Murakami Stadium and lock up the season-opening series for the Rainbow Warriors. A scrappy home weekend came down to a single play in the ninth.
Wild pitch ends it
The final inning started with Hawai'i simply putting the ball in play and forcing Gonzaga to make a play it never quite completed. Ben Zeigler-Namoa beat out an infield grounder that slipped past second baseman Hudson Shupe, and Ickes followed by lining a single to left to put runners in scoring position. Gonzaga turned to 6-foot-4 left-hander Frank Willius, but his first pitch bounced past catcher Luca DiPaolo, giving Ickes all the invitation he needed to dive home with the winning run in a 4-3 finish, as reported by Star-Advertiser.
Zeigler-Namoa, who helped set the table in the inning, said he "was ready to hit the whole weekend," a line that fit the Rainbow Warriors' grind-it-out approach when they needed offense most. Earlier in the frame, Tate Shimao had kept the rally breathing with a one-out single to right, and the 'Bows rode that late push all the way to the dramatic finish, per Star-Advertiser.
Series momentum
The wild pitch walk-off gave Hawai'i three wins in the four-game, season-opening set and a jolt of early momentum as conference play creeps closer. The Rainbow Warriors opened the year with an extended run of home games on the schedule, something the program had pointed to as an early advantage heading into the Gonzaga series, per Hawaii Athletics.
At Les Murakami
All of it played out on Les Murakami Stadium's recently upgraded turf, a $1.92 million renovation that players have said makes the surface more playable, as reported by recently upgraded turf. For UH, walking it off at home on the new surface is an early confidence boost as the Rainbow Warriors try to build consistent performances in front of Manoa fans.
