HONOLULU — UC Santa Barbara came into Les Murakami Stadium at the start of the weekend with a No. 15 ranking and 24 consecutive conference victories.
Thanks to some stellar Hawaii pitching on Sunday, the Gauchos left the ballpark with something else — their first series loss since last April.
Freshman Cooper Walls tossed seven shutout innings, and Isaiah Magdaleno was summoned out of the bullpen for multiple innings less than 24 hours removed from doing the same Saturday night, as the two combined on a four-hitter in the Rainbow Warriors’ 1-0 victory in the rubber match of the three-game set.
Per UH, it was the first series win over a ranked opponent for UH (14-5, 3-3 Big West) since it took three of four from No. 25 Oregon in February of 2010.
It was quite a response after the ‘Bows dropped two of three against UC Riverside in California’s Inland Empire the previous weekend.
“Feels great,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “I think it feels better how we pitched, how we kind of out-toughed those guys — that's a nationally ranked team. They had won 25 straight conference games coming (into Saturday). That's just a great performance, gutty performance, especially by our pitchers.”
In the third inning, Jared Quandt singled through the right side of the infield on a 0-2 pitch to score catcher David Vergel de Dios, a Maui High product from Kahului who recorded his first career hit.
It would be all the offense Hawaii needed.
Walls, a 6-foot-5 right-hander from Carlsbad, Calif., turned to his slider and fastball to keep the Gauchos (15-4, 4-2) off-balance. He seemed to get stronger as his outing went, setting down eight straight batters from the fifth through seventh innings.
Walls (2-0), who was not the declared Sunday starter coming into the weekend, said he was ready to fulfill whatever role was required.
After he walked a man to lead off the eighth, Hill went to the bullpen and he walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the bustling afternoon crowd of 2,141 (3,914 tickets issued).
“This place gets insane, like these fans here are something special,” Walls said. “So it was a crazy feeling. I was filled with joy when it came off the mound. It was really special moment for me.”
His 93-pitch outing included three strikeouts and two walks. He dropped his earned-run average to 2.49 in his fifth outing of the season; he has gone at least three innings in each.
Magdaleno, a 6-foot-3 right-hander from Los Angeles, picked up his second save in as many days and third of the season. He threw 48 pitches to get through the last three innings of Saturday’s 15-7 win.
“As of right now, I'm not sore, but probably tomorrow, I'll be a little bit sore,” he said. “It ain't bad. We got, what, a week till conference play (against UC Davis on Saturday), so I'll be good by then.”
Konnor Palmeira, another Kahului native who was inserted at catcher, gunned down Magdaleno’s inherited runner Reiss Calvin at second.
“That was huge, especially going into that giving me basically a fresh inning,” Magdaleno said.
Corey Nunez hit a sharp ball down the line past third baseman Xaige Lancaster, scored an error, and reached second. Magdaleno beaned leadoff man Xavier Esquer, but got the second out on a flyout to right by Jack Holman.
Esquer stole second representing the winning run but Jonathan Mendez struck out looking on a 2-2 count as the crowd, which booed a borderline ball two pitches prior, erupted.
Shortstop Elijah Ickes’ running snare of a line drive by Isaac Kim as the first out in the ninth helped Magdaleno end it without drama.
“We think Walls) is a future ace, and really going to be a pillar of our pitching staff, not only this year but for the future,” Hill said, “and then for Mags to come back after throwing close to 50 pitches last night, and being 92 (mph) is pretty awesome.”
UCSB’s Calvin Proskey (1-2) was the hard-luck loser with nine strikeouts against five hits and two walks in 6 1/3 frames.
While UCSB ace Tyler Bremner had the first word in the series, UH pitching held UCSB without a home run for the weekend on a .189 batting average.
UCSB, which was swept at the Les in a high-leverage series to end the 2023 season, won 44 games and hosted a regional last spring. Coach Andrew Checketts and his staff came out for the customary postgame handshake with their UH counterparts but UCSB’s players remained in the dugout.
Magdaleno brushed it off as competitive spirit while Hill said “I’ll reserve comment.”
The teams could meet again in the inaugural Big West tournament in Fullerton, Calif., in May.
“Exactly. That's our plan,” Magdaleno said.
UH hosts UC Davis (11-7, 3-0) for a three-game series at the Les starting Saturday at 6:35 p.m. The Aggies are coming off a three-game sweep of UC Riverside.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
