Despite Wichita State sending the University of Hawaii baseball team to bed without any supper, the veteran head coach for the Shockers saw some things in the ninth inning that registered high on his intensity meter.
First, a pair of leadoff walks by reliever Greg Drumright left Stephenson shaking his head. Throw in errors by first baseman Matt Patrick and left fielder Curtis Kempton that led to two runs, and suddenly the 8-3 win is secondary.
"I'm disappointed that we had a good game, a well-pitched game and up until the ninth the defense was fine," Stephenson said. "I don't like to end the game like that. I don't like to end anything like that.
"People tell me they want opportunities to play and then they play like that. Why hell. And you know, we walked two guys to start the inning. But hey, let's dwell on the positive side."
And that is, the Shockers have a chance to be the No. 1 seed entering tomorrow's championship round of the 22nd annual Bank of America Rainbow Easter Baseball Tournament.
Their relatively easy win over the Rainbows lifted them to 3-1 in tournament play, tied with the University of Washington, which pounded Nebraska, 12-5.
The Shockers played Cal State-Northridge this morning. The Matadors bounced back from a heart-breaking loss to the Rainbows with a 10-6 victory over the Lobos of New Mexico yesterday morning. Both teams are 1-3 in tournament action.
Hawaii and Nebraska, who square off tonight at Rainbow Stadium, are 2-2 in the tournament. Whoever wins this final round-robin game will be one of the four teams that advances to the championship round.
According to tournament rules, the tie-breaker for teams with identical records are total runs scored. Hawaii's 16-2 victory over New Mexico could come in handy in case the Rainbows finish 2-3 and tied with the Lobos or Matadors.
"We're going to go with Dusty Bergman (tonight) and hope he pitches better than he did against Northridge," Murakami said of the freshman's short outing. "Then we'll come back with Andrew McNally.
"He's supposedly our best, right? And he says he feels fine after pitching in the bullpen. We'll probably be playing Wichita State again."
The Rainbows took a short-lived lead against the Shockers last night with a solo homer in the first by Neal Honma. The line shot just cleared the fence.
Hawaii eventually loaded the bases in the inning, but winning pitcher Ben Christensen got out of trouble by getting Daren Masanda, who stranded seven runners in scoring position last night, to pop out to second to end the threat.
"Christensen dodged some bullets in the first two innings, but he got out of it and pitched pretty good for a young freshman," Stephenson said. "And then (Nate) Robertson came in and probably did even better."
The hard-throwing lefty struck out six in three innings of relief. He yielded only one hit to make sure Christensen got the win.
The Shockers tied the game in the third with some long ball of their own. Aaron Abram sent a Jamie Aloy fastball high and deep to center. The 420-foot solo shot landed in a tree behind big blue.
Wichita State broke it open in the fifth. The Shockers scored six runs after two were out. The key blows were back-to-back run-scoring doubles by Nathan Reese and Brian Preston off Aloy, who fell to 2-7, and a two-run single by Jeff Ryan off reliever Kamuela Binkie to give Wichita State a comfortable 8-1 advantage.
Northridge 10, New Mexico 6: The Matadors came back from a late-night matchup with the Rainbows to win their first game of the tournament in four tries.
Carey Novits picked up the win for Northridge, while Barry Kiess was tagged with the loss. Dan Pierce and Terrmel Sledge led the Matadors at the plate. Sledge went 3-for-5 with two RBIs, while Pierce was 2-for-4 with four RBIs.
Washington 12, Nebraska 5: The Huskies continued to hit the ball well in their tourney victory over the Cornhuskers. Jake Kringen went eight innings to pick up the win, while Spencer Van Linge was tagged with the loss.
Washington's Kevin Miller went 3-for-5 with four RBIs, including his seventh homer of the season. Ryan Soules also hit his seventh home run for the Huskies. He went 2-for-5 and scored three.
Standings
W L Pct. Washington 3 1 .750 Wichita State 3 1 .750 Hawaii 2 2 .500 Nebraska 2 2 .500 New Mexico 1 3 .250 CS Northridge 1 3 .250At Rainbow Stadium
Yesterday's results
Cal State Northridge 10, New Mexico 6
Washington 12, Nebraska 5
Wichita State 8, Hawaii 3
Today's games
Cal State Northridge vs. Wichita State, 11 a.m.
Washington vs. New Mexico, 2:30 p.m.
Nebraska vs. Hawaii, 6:35 p.m.
Tomorrow's games
5th seed vs. 6th seed, 11 a.m.
2nd seed vs. 3rd seed, 2:30 p.m.
1st seed vs. 4th seed, 6:35 p.m.
Wichita State Hawaii ab r h bi ab r h bi Hooper 2b 4 0 0 0 Blakely cf 4 0 0 0 Ryan ss 5 0 2 2 Honma lf 4 2 1 1 Abram rf 5 1 2 1 Millichap rf 4 0 1 1 Patrick 1b 5 1 1 0 Murphy 3b 5 0 2 0 Reese c 5 1 1 1 Medeiros 1b 4 0 0 0 Preston dh 2 2 1 1 Nakano dh 1 0 0 0 Fogarty ph 1 0 0 0 Voshell ph 1 0 0 0 Magness ph 1 0 1 0 Masanda 2b 4 0 1 0 Adams cf 4 1 2 1 Hansen c 3 0 0 0 Davis lf 4 1 3 0 Perreira c 1 0 0 0 Kempton lf 1 0 0 0 Dartt ss 3 0 0 0 Walkup 3b 2 1 0 1 Pico ss 0 1 0 0 Totals 39 8 13 7 Totals 34 3 5 2 Wichita State 001 160 000 -- 8 Hawaii 100 000 002 -- 3E--Ryan, Patrick, Adams, Kempton. LOB--Wichita State 10, Hawaii 11.
2B--Reese, Preston, Davis. HR--Abram (1), Honma (2). SB--Adams (5), Davis (6). SF--Walkup.
IP H R ER BB SO Christensen (W,2-0) 5 4 1 1 4 4 Robertson 3 1 0 0 1 6 Drumright 1 0 2 1 2 0 Aloy (L,2-7) 4-2/3 10 7 7 2 3 Binkie 4-1/3 3 1 1 2 2WP--Binkie. HBP--Walkup (by Binkie).
T--2:55. A--1,353 (turnstile).
Umpires--Shelstad (plate), Montalbo (bases).
Cal State Northridge 10, New Mexico 6
New Mexico 220 110 000-- 6 11 4 Cal St. Northridge 120 500 02x--10 10 2Barry Kiess, Chris Jones (5), Ron Rolfes (9) and Chad Alveras; Carey Novits, Brian Downing (6), Gary Stephenson (9) and Jeremy Sickles. W--Novits (2-0). L--Kiess (2-4).
Leading hitters--NM: Travis Young, RBI; Alevras, 2-4, 2b, 2 RBIs; Thomas Moulton, 2b; Jeff Hix, 2-4; Ryan Beggs, 2-2, RBI. CSN: Terrmel Sledge, 3-5, 2 RBIs; Dan Pierce, 2-4, 3b, 4 RBIs.
Washington 12, Nebraska 5
Nebraska 000 000 410--5 7 2 Washington 000 344 01x--12 17 0Spencer Van Linge, Jarod Bearinger (5), Kerrick Jackson (7) and Andrew Sawyers; Jake Kringen, Ken Ferguson (9) and Ryan Bundy. W--Kringen (4-2). L--Van Linge (3-2).
Leading hitters--Neb: Cliffton Durham, 3b, 2 RBIs; Ken Harvey, 2b; Sawyers, 2-4; Eric Mumm, 2b, RBI. UW: Kevin Miller, 3-5, 2 2b, HR, 4 RBIs; Ryan Lentz, 3-3, 2b, RBI; Bundy, 2-4, 2b, 3b, 2 RBIs; Ryan Soules, 2-5, HR, RBI; Bryan Williamson, 3-5, 4 RBIs; Jamie Porter, 2-4.
1420-AM