Koloa’s Rodrigues swipes weekly WAC pitching honor

The University of Hawai’i Rainbow baseball team (5-2) defeated the UC Irvine Anteaters (4-3) 3-1 in front of a crowd of 2,276 at the Les Murakami Stadium, Sunday.

Mark Rodrigues of Koloa, gave up just two hits in 7.0 innings with two strikeouts to get the win. Glenn Swanson (1-1) took the loss for the Anteaters. Richard Olsen pitched one perfect inning to get his first save of the season.

Hawai’i pitching coach Chad Konishi, who is also from Kaua’i, said before the season that Rodrigues was going to be “special” for UH this year.

Luis Avila led the way for UH, going 3-for-4 with a double and one RBI. Justin Frash added a 2-for-3 game with a triple, one RBI and a run while Robbie Wilder went 2-for-4 with a run and a double. Elijah Christensen also went 2-for-3.

Avila put UH on the board in the bottom of the first, driving in Wilder to make it Rodrigues, who faced only 19 batters in the first six innings, while holding UCI off the scoreboard.

UC Irvine scored a run in the ninth before Olsen closed the door with three-straight fly outs, giving UH the 3-1 victory.

Rodrigues was named the Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week on Monday.

At one point, he retired 12 consecutive batters during the game on Sunday. It is Rodrigues’ first career WAC Pitcher of the Week award.