Quality starts continue to provide the Hawaii baseball team with its longest stretch of quality play in some time.

The Rainbow Warriors attained their NCAA-leading 10^th straight win with an 8-2 victory over UC Riverside at Les Murakami Stadium on Friday night, thanks in large part to Randy Abshier’s second straight scoreless start.

A night after reaching the 30-win plateau for the first time since 2012, UH (31-15, 14-9 Big West) achieved a double-digit win streak for only the second time since 2000. The Rainbow Warriors claimed their fourth straight series since getting swept at conference leader UC Santa Barbara in mid-April.

Morale is high, though a postseason berth is still unlikely with seven games remaining in the regular season and no winning teams left to face to boost UH’s resume.

“It happens when you’re on this streak. The vibe in the dugout is awesome,” coach Rich Hill told the Spectrum Sports crew postgame. “People are comfortable with their roles. And we have a good time, anyway. I just believe in that. Baseball’s supposed to be fun. We have a real good synergy going right now.”

Abshier (4-4) went 6 1/3 innings with just four hits and no walks allowed while striking out five. The left-hander from San Diego has 13 1/3 straight scoreless innings going back to last weekend’s start against Cal State Northridge.

“He’s great. This time of the season that slider is really working for him,” Hill said. “He has a lot of confidence in that changeup. Playing with that 90 mph fastball, it’s tough on opposing hitters.”

When UCR got consecutive one-out singles on Abshier in the seventh, Itsuki Takemoto came out of the bullpen and elicited a strikeout and a lineout.

UH took a shutout into the ninth inning but the Highlanders (15-30, 5-18) got on the board against Takemoto with two walks and a double.

Dallas Duarte got a night off from catching as he swapped roles with usual designated hitter Austin Machado, who went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and drove in three runs.

Kyson Donahue reached the 100-RBI mark for his UH career with a single to left in the sixth. Jordan Donahue and Elijah Ickes registered multi-hit games – for Ickes it was his fourth straight.

Center fielder Matthew Miura made a highlight diving grab of Cole Koniarsky as the first out in the top of the ninth, and Jared Quandt made a similar play to Rudy Rodriguez IV in right to end the game.

The teams have the day off Saturday for UH Manoa graduation and are scheduled to finish the series at 1:05 p.m. Sunday.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Most every high school class has that one natural athlete where everything seemingly comes so easy.

At Mid-Pacific Institute, Destiny Look fits that description and this weekend, she’s closing in on a state championship in the 300-meter hurdles — a sport she only started two years ago on the fly.

“We kind of did it as a joke at first and then I was like, I kind of want to do this in a meet,” Look said. “I guess it kind of came natural. I did gymnastics as a kid, too, and I have these boards in my house I kind of walk over, so it was kind of just hurdle form already — walk over, bring your leg over, so I already had it in my brain.”

The problem is at that time MPI didn’t have a full-time hurdling coach or program, but longtime track coach Rick Hendrix trained himself up and could see right away, Look had it down.

“In the 100 hurdles, you three step in between every hurdle,” Hendrix said. “By the first week, she was doing it and just three-stepping. Most girls it’s either four or five step, but to be really good at it, you three step.”

Since then, Look has bolted off the blocks winning multiple ILH championships in the 300m and 100 hurdles, the long jump, and a school record in high jump.

“She has the speed and she has the endurance of a long-distance runner, which is a great combination,” Hendrix said. “You don’t see that too much.”

And track isn’t her only love as she’s excelled in soccer, cross country and basketball.

This past season, she tried out for the Owls varsity volleyball team, made the cut, and in her first year in the sport, won a state championship.

“I didn’t start, I wouldn’t play as much,” Look said. “I put in that work at practice and I showed them, I can play. Then I started building up, play a little more, help the team, it was just a fun experience overall.”

This weekend’s state tournament is only one event on a packed calendar..

Next month, she heads to Oregon for the prestigious Nike outdoor national tournament and then it’s off to Texas for the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics.

Her hope is to eventually land at a division 1 university with the goal of competing at the Olympics in the heptathlon.

“I usually just think I gotta go full out and it’s just me against the clock,” Look said. “Just always trying to cut down on those times and get a good time for a PR or something.’’

Given her knack for multi-tasking, she’ll be just fine.

Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

Hawaii residents are disappointed that the Aloha State’s lawmakers ended the legislative session without advancing a bill to strengthen the independence of the state’s Water Commission.

The bill’s demise comes at a critical time. The Hawaii Supreme Court recently determined that Attorney General Anne Lopez and the state Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) made baseless allegations against a judge’s decision regarding East Maui streams.

Meanwhile, a citizens group known as the Red Hill Community Representative Initiative (CRI) has been advocating for the legislation since significant water contamination affected roughly 93,000 residents in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in 2021. 

Marti Townsend, a resident and chair of the CRI, denounced the legislature for failing to advance the bill. 

“From the … decades-long foot-dragging in implementing legally required stream protections in East Maui, to the bald-faced lies about a lack of water for firefighting on Maui,” Townsend said. “Powerful special interests have pulled political strings to override the public interest for far too long,”

More: Hawaii legislature wraps up session – here’s what passed and what didn’t

Maui

On August 8, 2023, Lahaina, a historic town on Maui Island, fell victim to the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history. The blaze ravaged the community, reducing it to ashes, claiming the lives of over 100 individuals and displacing over 5,000 residents. 

Last month, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the Attorney General and BLNR attempted to exploit the aftermath of the Lahaina fire by submitting false accusations regarding a judge’s decision for East Maui streams.  

The court determined that their submitted statements, aimed at increasing stream water diversion by Alexander & Baldwin, a former plantation now a real estate investment trust, were so evidently lacking in merit that they suggested bad faith.

“It seems that the BLNR tried to leverage the most horrific event in state history to advance its own interests,” according to the court’s decision. 

Despite the submission of over 500 pages of written testimony in favor of the bill, Lopez and DLNR chair Dawn Chang stood as the sole voices who opposed it.

More: Hawaii is the first state to pass a Gaza ceasefire resolution. Here’s what happens next

Red Hill 

In November 2021, a water contamination incident struck the facility catering to approximately 93,000 residents in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

In response to numerous reports of illnesses among local families who consumed the tainted water, the Pentagon announced plans in March 2022 to close Red Hill permanently.

Despite these actions, concerns persist among residents about water quality. Many continue to report symptoms akin to those experienced during the 2021 contamination, including rashes, headaches, heartburn, and fatigue.

A former Navy veteran, Lacey Quintero, told USA Today that they believe the Navy is aware that the Red Hill water is still contaminated and is misleading the public by claiming it is safe to drink.

What would the bill have done?

At its core, this bill aimed to minimize political interference in resource management decisions. It proposed empowering the Hawaiʻi Commission on Water Resource Management with the authority to select its own attorney and Chairperson, roles currently under gubernatorial control. 

Additionally, it sought to protect Commission staff from arbitrary disciplinary actions, a concern brought to light by the departure of a former water deputy following the Maui wildfires. 

The bill would have also established dedicated commission staff and a special fund to manage federal funding allocated for the cleanup of the Red Hill contamination. 

Just before the sessions ended, State House and Senate Conferences agreed to defer the bill. In an interview with Spectrum News, Sen. Lorraine Inouye (D), chair of the Senate Committee on Water and Land, expressed her frustration.

“I am greatly disappointed in the outcome on (the bill) despite agreement between both legislative bodies that this bill is urgently needed and very important—not just for Red Hill but also for Lahaina,” Inouye said.

Jeremy Yurow is a politics reporting fellow based in Hawaii for the USA TODAY Network. You can reach him at JYurow@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter @JeremyYurow