HONOLULU, Hawai'i --- UC Irvine baseball allowed the hosts Hawai'i to even the series gifting them all their runs Saturday night at Les Murakami Stadium in a 4-3 loss.

DROPPING THE BALL
The night started with the Anteaters (14-8, 4-1) in a hole almost immediately. A leadoff triple for the Rainbow Warriors (8-13, 2-3). After a strikeout, a groundball gave UCI a chance to cut down the run at the plate, but an errant throw for the first error of the night allowed the run to come in and a 1-0 UH lead. A second error on the next play put two runners in scoring position allowing a groundout to bring another run home putting the 'Eaters in a 2-0 deficit after one inning.

UCI answered in the second inning with a triple of their own by Justin Torres who would score on a Hawai'i miscue of their own to make it a 2-1 game. Jacob Castro, responsible for the first error, made amends with a home run with two outs in the second to tie things up at 2-2.

COMEDY OF ERRORS
The game remained tied into the fifth inning when the poor defense reared its ugly head. The Bows began with a single and sacrifice bunt, but an error on another sacrifice allowed Hawai'i to take the lead back unearned. With a runner on third now and two outs, an infield single compounded by an errant throw scored an second run in the inning and putting another runner in scoring position. An intentional walk and unintentional walk loaded the bases before Nick Pinto settled things down and kept the deficit at 4-2.

UCI struck back immediately once again scoring on a pair of doubles by Nathan Church and Justin Torres. That knocked out Hawai'i starter Andy Archer bringing on Buddie Pindel who, despite another passed ball, held the tying run at third base with a pair of groundouts to stay up on UCI, 4-3.

Pindel erased the 'Eaters in order in the seventh and eighth, but UCI had a chance in the ninth following a Dub Gleed single. Pinch-runner Caden Kendle would skip to third on Hawai'i's first error of the night on a wild pickoff attempt, but once again UCI was denied on a groundout to end the game.

FINAL SCORE: HAWAI'I 4, UC IRVINE 3
Unlucky on the night was the Anteater pitching staff that did not allow an earned run. Nick Pinto was the tough-luck loser now 0-3 on the season credited with four unearned runs in five innings. He even worked around a fifth Anteater error in the third inning moving a one-out double up to third base, but stranding him there. Cameron Wheeler was lights-out in relief sitting down all nine hitters he faced and doing so throwing 24 of 29 pitches for strikes.

The five errors were the story of the game as something an Anteater defense has only done a handful of times in the history of the program and had not done since 1988. The five errors were spread out among five different Anteaters, and three happened on run-scoring plays to add to the four unearned runs.

UCI's offense nearly overcame the blunders, but managed just six hits for a second straight game. Justin Torres continued his onslaught with a double, triple, RBI, and run scored. He's pelted nine hits in the last four games with seven going for extra bases. Four of UCI's six hits were for extra bases including Jacob Castro's first longball of the season and just second in his career that's spanned 137 games.

The series hangs in the balance Sunday in the finale from Les Murakami Stadium. First pitch is 4:05 p.m. PDT with Danny Suarez on the hill against a Hawai'i pitcher yet to be named.

Postgame Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"Unfortunately, we've seen this all year. We've been a bad defensive team the entire season. If you're at games, you see that; if you look at the stats, you see that. We've been able to overcome and win some games, but we're consistently a bad defensive team, and the last two nights were as bad as we've been; you make three errors and then five errors, you can't win. Unfortunately, this is what we've been through the first 22 games. If we don't play better defense, it's hard to win."

"I thought Pinto threw the ball fine. He made some big pitches when he had to. He strikes out Scotty Scott with a guy on third and less than two outs and the same thing to Igawa, and his last hitter he strands the bases loaded so he made some big pitches when it counted. Wheeler was really good after being down last week with forearm soreness, so to get him back and see him do that is really encouraging. He's got a chance to do anything, if he keeps pitching like that he's got a chance to start or pitch in Gordon's role and pitch him whenever we need him. We need to find ways to pitch him more."

"We've just got to play better defense. We can't talk about winning until we can stop doing the things that make us lose and so we've got to stop doing those things, and if we do that we give ourselves a chance. Then somebody has to come in and beat us so the message is we've got to start beating ourselves."