Hawaii shut out in series opener against Cal State Fullerton
· Yahoo Sports
In a pitching duel, Cal State Fullerton’s Mikiah Negrete out-paced Hawaii’s Isaiah Magdaleno in a 2-0 baseball victory at Les Murakami Stadium on Friday.
A crowd of 2,625 saw the left-handed Negrete pitch a two-hitter and strike out a career-high 11 as the Titans won the opener of a three-game Big West series. The Titans improved to 12-13 and 6-4 in the Big West. It was the third time this season an opponent pitched a complete game against the Rainbow Warriors, who dropped to 13-11 and 3-7.
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Negrete relied on a slider to complement a 91 mph fastball. He also threw off a gyrating, four-hitch motion that offered him a rhythmic approach.
“I kind of picked it up myself,” Negrete said of his delivery. “I didn’t really take it from anyone. It got me in my rhythm and helped me on the mound. I’m happy with it. … It’s like a dance. It’s a dance for me and it helps with my rhythm, for sure.”
This was the third year in a row Negrete pitched a series-opener against the ’Bows. Last year, he surrendered nine hits — seven of them doubles — and eight runs in a loss at Fullerton.
“I got punched in the face last year pretty hard,” Negrete said. “This year I wanted to give it back to them, for sure. Me and my boys came with a lot of energy and wanted to earn it.”
In 2024, Negrete allowed eight hits and four runs in a loss at Les Murakami Stadium. But he said that experience taught him about Manoa’s cross winds toward right field.
“It was keep the ball down, let them hit it on the ground, and don’t give them a chance to hit it to right field,” said Negrete, who induced six groundouts.
“That fastball, 91 (mph), was firm enough, even in the late innings,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “We didn’t have an answer to that slider. The backdoor slider to the righties was a tough situation for us.”
The ’Bows’ right-handed hitters were 1-for-21 against Negrete. Neither UH hit left the infield.
“The slider was really good and mainly it was getting ahead of guys,” said Negrete, who had a three-ball count to three of the 30 batters he faced. “Just playing with the count the way you want to and putting guys away when you have to.”
The outcome spoiled what Hill insisted was the right-handed Magdaleno’s best performance of an already impressive season. Magdaleno allowed five hits, walked one and struck out 12 in 71⁄3 innings. Grant Garman and Tsubasa Tomii combined to allow one hit in 12⁄3 scoreless innings.
“Honestly, just throwing with conviction,” Magdaleno said. “I didn’t feel like I had everything. I was going out there throwing what I thought was my best and attacking batters.”
In the second inning, CSUF’s Nick Miller hit a leadoff double to left and scored when Brady Dobson pulled a two-out drive down the right-field line.
The Titans added an insurance run in the eighth when Niko Lombardi singled through the middle, went to second when Cam Burdick was struck by a Magdaleno pitch, and came home on Cameron Kim’s RBI double.
Other than those two lapses, Magdaleno was in control. Beginning with one out in the sixth, he struck out the next six batters.
“I thought Magdaleno was spectacular,” Hill said. “I thought that was his best game. (But) he had nothing to show for it.”