Hawaii Caplitalizes on Extended Baseball Homestand

By Fred Guzman

Unbelievably, the University of Hawaii baseball team has been enjoying home cooking for nearly seven weeks. That’s right. The Rainbows last played an away game on March 7, when they concluded a five-game road trip at Cal State Long Beach.

Since then, UH has made the most of a protracted homestand that will reach 27 games with a a three-game, non-conference series against Valparaiso that starts tonight at Les Murakamai Stadium.

Hawaii has won nine of its last 10 outings, improving its overall record to 21-15 and, most importantly, a 7-1 mark in the conference for a 1.5-game lead over Fresno State in the WAC standings.

Valpo is second in the Horizon League with a 9-3 record and has an overall mark of 15-21.

The sobering news for UH is that, after this week, it will have to play 12 of its final 16 regular-season games on the road – including a crucial four-game series at nationally 12th-ranked Fresno State that begins a week from Friday.

Junior second baseman Kolten Wong has lived up to his status as a pre-season All-American by leading Hawaii in most significant offensive categories. Wong is batting .383 to go with five home runs, 27 runs scored and 28 RBI.