3 Rainbow pitchers combine to shut out No. 7 Oregon State

Cooper Walls, Liam O’Brien and Isaiah Magdaleno combined on three-hit shutout in the Hawaii baseball team’s 5-0 victory over seventh-ranked Oregon State on Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium.

A crowd of 2,733 saw the Rainbow Warriors rebound after losing the first two of this four-game series.

Konnor Palmeira smacked a solo home run, his first of the season, and Matthew Miura hit a two-run double in the fourth inning.

But it was dominant pitching that helped the ’Bows improve to 29-16. The Beavers fell to 34-12. First pitch for Monday’s series finale is 6:35 p.m.

Boosted by this week’s schedule of strength and conditioning training, as well as two pre-game meals, Walls “was at ease,” according to pitching coach Keith Zuniga. “He had his normal weekly routine, and he was ready to go.”

Walls was able to find the strike zone with a curveball. “Most importantly, he was stealing strikes on the outer half of the plate, and he was able to get to two strikes,” Zuniga said. “He has such a wipe-out slider that when he gets to two strikes, he was able to put people away with weak contact.”

Walls allowed two hits and two walks while striking out five in five innings. After going through OSU’s lineup twice, he gave way to O’Brien.

O’Brien mixed a 95-mph fastball with a mid-80s curveball. “When his curveball is on and he’s throwing that over the plate, he’s extremely tough,” Zuniga said.

O’Brien said the pitchers were “locked in. We tried to get ahead of them with our pitching and let the offense do the rest.”

Despite relinquishing a one-out double and walk, Magdaleno induced a flyout and groundout to end the game.