In his third year with the University of Hawaii baseball program, Waiakea High School graduate Quintin Torres-Costa finally appears to have found his niche.
Torres-Costa, the 2012 All-State Pitcher of the Year after leading the Warriors to the state championship, earned two saves last weekend for UH with back-to-back lights-out performances against Cal State Northridge.
In the teams’ Big West Conference series opener last Friday, Torres-Costa entered the game in the top of the eighth inning with the Rainbow Warriors clinging to a seemingly tender 1-0 lead, given the team’s season-long struggles out of the bullpen.
After allowing a leadoff single to left field by William Colantono and then Ryan Raslowsky’s sacrifice bunt to move the potential tying run into scoring position, Torres-Costa struck out Yasuke Akitoshi and then got Justin Toerner to ground out to short to retire the side and preserve the lead.
UH went down in order in the bottom of the frame so Torres-Costa was still left with the slim 1-0 lead in the ninth. He proceeded to strike out cleanup batter Nolan Bumstead on four pitches, get Dylan Alexander to ground out to second and then sealed the victory with a dramatic four-pitch strikeout of Chester Pak.
Almost exactly 24 hours later, Torres-Costa was called out of the bullpen again, this time to protect a 3-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning. He promptly struck out Bumstead again, got Nick Murphy to ground out to short and then struck out Elias Orona looking to send the announced Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 3,649 home happy and on time.
Torres-Costa, a 6-foot, 190-pound redshirt sophomore, needed only 12 pitches – 10 of them strikes – to retire the side on Saturday for his second save in as many nights and third overall this season. He threw only 21 pitches – 16 of them strikes – in two complete innings on Friday, so Rainbow Warriors coach Mike Trapasso said Torres-Costa may have been available Sunday if another save situation presented itself.
Alas, UH surrendered a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning and never got it back before losing, 7-3.
But the Rainbow Warriors (14-24 overall, 5-7 Big West) won the series and regained some much-needed confidence heading into this week’s home series vs. No. 11-ranked UC Santa Barbara (28-9, 6-3). More specifically, Hawaii can now have much confidence should top two starters LJ Brewster and Tyler Brashears happen to leave Torres-Costa with a tight lead in the eighth or ninth inning.
“I think that closer role fits his demeanor, his personality and his skill set,” Trapasso told ESPN 1420 AM’s Don Robbs during Sunday’s pregame show. “(Brewster and Brashears) are high-velocity guys, and now we bring in Quintin and he’s another high-velocity guy.”
Using Torres-Costa in short, specific late-game situations also allows him to just fire away and reduces the chances of over-thinking or falling into inconsistent patterns, which may have caused problems early in the season. After an impressive first start against Oregon, in which he allowed only one earned run and struck out eight in six innings pitched, Torres-Costa was hit hard in subsequent starts against Hofstra (five earned runs in four and two-thirds innings) and at Pepperdine (eight earned runs in one and two-thirds innings), and then he gave up two more earned runs in just one inning at Houston.
His earned run average ballooned to 10.80 at that point, while his confidence may also have been shaken at least a bit.
But since then, Torres-Costa has not allowed an earned run in his past 14 innings pitched over eight relief appearances.
The turnaround started at home against New Mexico State on March 20, when he came on in relief of Brashears with a 2-1 lead. Torres-Costa appeared a little shaky against the first few batters, allowing a walk, a bases-loaded balk and then another walk. But he struck out the next two batters to leave the bases loaded, and then set down the final six batters in order over the next two innings – including three strikeouts – to earn his only victory against three losses.
Torres-Costa has been great ever since, especially this past weekend and also in a three-and-two-thirds inning, one-hit, six-strikeout performance against UC Davis on April 4 for his first save.
His firm fastball, with biting movement, and sharp breaking pitches are reminiscent of those seen during his spectacular no-hit, 13-strikeout performance in the 2012 state championship victory over Baldwin.
That was the Torres-Costa whom Trapasso was so excited to welcome to Manoa, and it now appears to be the Torres-Costa who is the closer the Rainbow Warriors sorely need this season.