Hawaii uses the long ball to advance over UC Santa Barbara, 6-2

FULLERTON, Calif. — Hawai’i baseball coach Rich Hill did not plan on checking out of the hotel that his team is staying in until next Monday.

The Rainbow Warriors made sure his wish was granted after a Big West elimination game Wednesday afternoon.

Ben Zeigler-Namoa’s three-run blast in the bottom of the fifth gave Hawai’i the lead for good as its pulled away from UC Santa Barbara, 6-2, at Goodwin Field.

With the victory the Rainbow Warriors advance to the double-elimination portion of the conference’s postseason and will play top-seeded UC-Irvine Thursday at 12:00 p.m. HST.

Zeigler-Namoa’s sixth home run of the season gave Hawai’i a 4-2 lead in the win-or-go-home contest. A two-run homer by Matthew Miura in the seventh gave the Rainbow Warriors their final runs of the ball game.

The bullpen tandem of Corey Ronan and Isaiah Magdaleno combined for the final 15 outs against the Gauchos. Ronan replaced starter Cooper Walls in the fifth after 64 pitches and earned his third win of season while Magdaleno recorded his eighth save of the year by picking up the final eight outs.

“They’re unreal, all of our arms are unreal,” Zeigler-Namoa said in ESPN+ broadcast postgame. “I thought we had a great start from Cooper today. Bullpen arms, they’ve always been lockdown, man those boys can throw a baseball and they hung on to do it. Just some timely hitting, ultimately it was a great time.”

UCSB starting pitcher Jackson Flora was charged with the loss after six innings of work. He was someone that Hawai’i saw success against during the regular season in a 15-7 win on March 15. Zeigler-Namoa said the game plan was to stay on Flora’s fast ball and adjust to his off-speed pitches.

When Flora offered a 97 mph fast ball on a 0-1 count during Zeigler-Namoa’s third time up to bat, the Hawai’i first baseman was ready to flip the game in the Rainbow Warriors’ favor.

“I didn’t realize it was 97 (mph). I was seeing the ball really well today,” Zeiger-Namoa said. “Ultimately we were just trying to go out there and do everything we can to win.”

Flora was pulled in the bottom of the seventh after giving up a leadoff single to No. 9 hitter Hunter Faildo, who led off a half-inning for the third time of the game.

The next UCSB pitcher — Cole Tryba — didn’t fair any better as Matthew Miura crushed Tryba’s first pitch for a two-run home run and a 6-2 Hawai’i lead.

Hawai’i struck first in the ball game in the bottom of the second on Elijah Ickes’ sac fly to score Jared Quandt.

The Gauchos tied the game in the top of the third on Isaac Kim’s single and took a brief lead in the fifth on Nate Vargas’ sac fly before Zeigler-Namoa gave Hawai’i the lead for good in the bottom of the frame.

Hawai’i will now look to earn its first win of the year against UC-Irvine after getting swept by the Anteaters in a road series in mid-April during the regular season.