By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii third baseman
Sean Murphy camps under
a pop up yesterday in
the loss to Utah.

After yesterday's 10-3 drubbing by the University of Utah, Hawaii has now lost seven in a row, 10 of 11 and 22 of 27 dating back to the end of 1996.

It may not be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but Utah has never swept Hawaii at Rainbow Stadium. In fact, before this series, the Utes were 0-for-12 here over the last 13 years.

To make matters worse, the Rainbows dropped deeper into the cellar of the West Division of the Western Athletic Conference with an 0-6 mark entering this weekend's road series at the University of New Mexico.

Two weeks ago, UH head coach Les Murakami told his team to forget all those losses in the nonconference phase of the schedule. He and his staff had hoped the start of league play would produce a successful second season.

But it hasn't worked out that way. Barring some miracle turnaround, the Rainbows will finish last in the West Division for the third time since 1994 and miss postseason play for the fourth year in a row.

Perhaps Murakami's karma is coming undone. How else can you explain the succession of physical ailments and academic casualties that have plagued his program since September?

"It's hard for me to be mad at these guys because we're playing our bench," Murakami said after yesterday's defeat. "We've lost at least 10 guys we were counting on to injuries and academics.

"What can we do? We have to put somebody out there. Those guys are trying their hardest. We just have too many young guys out there on the field."

The latest Rainbow to go down is leading hitter Robert Medeiros, who sprained his ankle in Friday's 5-4 loss to the Utes.

Without him and fellow outfielder Darren Blakely, who is still sidelined with a strained thumb, the Rainbows were forced to use Jamie Aloy in left on Saturday and Tracy Nakano yesterday.

Medeiros wants to make the trip to Albuquerque, N.M., this weekend, but that has yet to be determined. Ailing pitcher Andrew McNally is expected to go on the road, but just how effective he will be with his sore leg is still anybody's guess.

"He's going to see somebody (today) to see if there's anything that can be done," Murakami said of McNally's nagging injury. "The key to the rest of our season is how well Andrew can pitch."

Pitching is still the biggest problem for the Rainbows. The experiment of starting closer Jay Spurgeon failed miserably in yesterday's lopsided loss. Teams have scored 10 or more runs against the Rainbows in 15 of 25 games this season.

Utah wasted little time getting a run off Spurgeon. Casey Child launched a one-out homer to left. The 400-foot shot gave the Utes a 1-0 lead in the first.

The Rainbows came back to tie it up in the second. Nakano got things started with a double into the gap in right. He scooted into third on a single to left by Aloy and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Sean Murphy.

But it didn't stay tied long.

Spurgeon ran into a load of trouble in the third. The first five batters reached safely with four of them crossing the plate. The big blow was a three-run homer by Scott Pratt that sailed over the foul pole in right. Utah added another run on an RBI single by Matt Eeles to make it 5-1.

The Utes kept pounding on Spurgeon in the fifth. The big blows were a two-run double by Eeles and an RBI single by Michael Heidemann to give the Utes an insurmountable 8-1 lead.

Spurgeon's record fell to 1-3 and his earned run average soared to 9.16. Utah's Rick Clagett pitched a complete game to raise his record to 5-0 and lower his ERA to 4.33.

"I told Les that they caught us at a bad time," Utah head coach Tim Esmay said. "We really hit our stride this weekend."

Spurgeon will be back in the bullpen next weekend. Murakami will start McNally, Robby Robinson and Dusty Bergman against the struggling Lobos, who are 1-5 in South Division play.

Bergman was the most effective pitcher for the Rainbows yesterday. He gave up only one earned run in three innings of relief.

"We can't keep trying to give Jay the experience if he can't get the job done," Murakami said. "He has potential, but he's too wild in the strike zone.

"When he gets his pitches up, they hit him. Utah has a very good hitting team. I can see why they're in first place (with a 5-1 North Division record). Hopefully, we'll play well enough at New Mexico to get some wins."

Utah	    	   				Hawaii 
	    	ab	r	h	bi	   		ab	r	h	bi
Pratt ss   	5	1	1	3	 Honma cf  	4	0	2	0
Goff 3b  	0	0	0	0	 Masanda 2b  	3	0	0	1
Child cf   	4	4	3	1	 Millichap rf 	4	0	0	0
Swenson cf  	0	0	0	0	 Konishi dh  	4	1	1	0
Atkinson rf  	5	1	3	0	 Nakano lf 	4	1	3	0
Johnson rf  	0	0	0	0	 Aloy 1b  	3	0	1	1
Forbush c   	5	1	1	0	 Murphy 3b 	1	0	0	1
Leonelli c  	0	0	0	0	 Nazarino 3b  	2	0	0	0
Heidemnn 1b  	4	1	1	2	 Hansen c  	4	0	0	0
Larsen 1b   	0	0	0	0	 Dartt ss  	3	1	1	0
Eeles lf   	4	0	2	3
Valladares lf  	0	0	0	0
Hall 3b-ss  	4	0	0	0
Flint dh   	2	1	1	1
Felts ph   	1	0	0	0
Marziale 2b  	4	1	0	0
Totals  	38	10	12	10	 Totals  	32	3	8	3

Utah    	104	030	110--10
Hawaii    	010	000	011-- 3

2B--Eoles, Konishi, Nakano. HR--Pratt (5), Child (8). SB--Child (14). SF--Flint, Masanda, Aloy, Murphy.

    			IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Clagett (W,5-0)  	9	8	3	3	0	5
Spurgeon (L,1-3)   	4-1/3	8	8	8	2	1
Mackenzie	    	2/3	1	0	0	0	0
Bergman 	  	3	3	2	1	1	2
Hermosura	    	1	0	0	0	1	0

Umpires--Leonard (plate), Montalbo (first), Poole (third).