HONOLULU – The Chaminade University baseball team opened up their four-game series against nationally ranked and defending Pacific West Conference champion Westmont College on Wednesday at the University of Hawai'i Manoa's Les Murakami Stadium.
Despite allowing a plethora of runs in the early innings, the Silverswords managed to calm the waters in the middle during their 15-6 loss.
The defeat dropped the 'Swords to 7-20 and 5-16 in the PacWest. The Warriors, ranked No. 18 in the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and 23rd in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) polls, improved to 15-5 and 12-5 in the conference.
Westmont did early damage, sending 11 batters to the plate in the first inning, scoring six times. They tacked on four more in the second and three in the third.
Although they were stunned by the open, the Silverswords managed to hang in there with a run in their half of the first and, trailing 10-1 going to the second, responded with RBIs from
Chris Mata (Wailuku, Maui, Hawai'i/South Mountain CC/Maui HS),
Trysten Mooney (Helena, Mont./Wenatchee Valley College/Capital HS) and
Cade Fujii (Kapolei, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Porterville College/Kapolei HS), drawing to within 10-4.
Caleb Wagner (Menifee, Calif./Mesa) drove in a run in the third while Mooney had another RBI in the fourth.
While the early innings featured offense, pitching took over from the fifth inning.
Fisher Migita (Honolulu/Mid-Pacific Institute), who had 1 1/3 innings entering the evening, took over in the third and proceeded to toss the next five frames. At one point, the freshman retired 10 straight Warriors before being lifted in the eighth.
CUH managed 10 hits with Mata continuing to rake. The junior went 3-for-5, extending his hit streak to 10 straight including four consecutive multi-hit games. Mooney,
Cameron Breeze (Temecula, Calif./San Diego City College/Paloma Valley HS) and
Taylor Ayala (Bountiful, Utah/Salt Lake CC/Woods Cross HS) each had two base knocks.
Chris Cody (Orange, Calif./Irvine Valley College/El Modena HS), who faced one batter before exiting with an injury, was charged with the loss.
Nick Romero went four innings in relief, allowing no runs on four hits to pick up the win.
The two teams meet in the second game of the series on Thursday at 5 p.m., weather pending.
