Baseball
The UC Davis baseball team closed its nonconference schedule with a trip to Hawaii, winning the first game of the series before losing three straight to the Rainbow Warriors.
UC Davis heads in to Big West Conference play with an 11-13 record.
Senior starter Dayne Quist struck out nine batters in seven innings and redshirt freshman Tino Lipson went 3-for-5 with two runs to lead UC Davis to a series-opening win Thursday.
Freshman Kevin Barker was hit by a pitch to lead off the game, marking the 21st consecutive game that UC Davis has been hit by a pitch. Sophomore Nick Lynch was later hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in Lipson, and senior David Popkins scored on a groundout from senior Scott Kalush to give the Aggies a 3-0 lead after one inning.
That was all the help Quist needed, as the Aggies took a 5-3 win.
In Friday’s match-up senior starter Anthony Kupbens struck out five in seven and a third innings of work, but the Hawai’i pitching staff quieted the Aggie bats to even the series with a 4-0 win.
On Saturday Lynch hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to tie the game at four runs apiece, and senior starter Tom Briner struck out a career-high 10 batters in seven innings of work, but UC Davis couldn’t salvage the extra-inning win as it fell 5-4 in 11 innings.
Sophomore Evan Wolf struck out a career-high five batters in four-and-a-third innings, but the Aggies were limited to just two hits in the series finale as they fell 7-1.
UC Davis held an early 1-0 lead in the top of the third, but the Warriors responded with seven straight runs in the final six innings.
The Aggies begin Big West play at No. 14 Cal State Fullerton on Thursday.
— Russell Eisenman
UC Davis finished last in the 17-team field at the U.S. Intercollegiate held at Stanford. The tournament featured six teams ranked in the top 15 nationally, according to golfstat.com.
The Aggies shot 73 over par in the three-day tournament, 72 strokes behind tournaments winner No. 12 Oregon.
Sophomore Matt Hansen finished tied for 40th, the best placing by any UC Davis golfer. Junior Josh Granger tied for 65th while freshman Luke Vivola finished 86th.
Sophomore Johnny Baxter tied for 53rd, but was not counted toward the UC Davis team score because he entered the event as an individual.
The Aggies will return to the course Monday at the Cowboy Classic in Scottsdale, Ariz.
— Trevor Cramer
