Rainbows falter late
at Fresno State
Hawaii's series split means
Star-Bulletin staff
it must win six straight or miss playoffsFRESNO, Calif. -- The collapse of the bullpen will probably cost the University of Hawaii baseball team any chance of advancing to the Western Athletic Conference postseason tournament. Poised to take a rare doubleheader from Fresno State, the Rainbows yielded five runs in the seventh and six in the eighth to allow the Bulldogs to rally from 6-4 and 10-9 deficits to take a 16-11 victory.
That left Hawaii with not only just a split of yesterday's twin bill, but of the four-game series at Beiden Field as well. Earlier in the day, Andrew McNally pitched the Rainbows to a 6-4 victory.
Because the fourth game of the series was the makeup of a rain out at Rainbow Stadium late last month, Hawaii technically took two of three and won its first series ever at Fresno State.
Unfortunately for UH head coach Les Murakami, the two road wins didn't help the Rainbows all that much. Hawaii heads to Brigham Young University, trailing San Diego State by three games for the sixth and final spot in next month's WAC event in San Diego.
That's because the scrappy Aztecs came back to win two of three at West Division leading San Jose State this weekend to raise their conference record to 14-10. Hawaii is 11-13 in the league and 19-31 overall. The Bulldogs are now 31-21 overall and 17-10 in league play. They are tied for first in the West with the Spartans.
San Diego State plays host to lowly New Mexico this weekend. It's unlikely the Aztecs will lose any of those games, forcing the Rainbows to sweep the Cougars on the road for the first time in their long history.
"We had our chances, but our relievers were tired, got the ball up in the zone and that really hurt us in the second game," Murakami said. "But here's the thing; they wouldn't have scored those five runs in the seventh if it wasn't for that bad-hop single. The darn thing bounced right over (UH shortstop Michael) Dartt's head."
Entering the fateful seventh, Hawaii held a 6-4 lead with Ken Mackenzie on the hill. Fresh off his win on Friday night, the freshman was just one out away from preserving the lead when destiny struck in the form of a routine grounder by Joe Pearse.
Instead of being the third out of the inning, it took a crazy hop to help keep the rally alive. The Bulldogs went on to score five two-out runs to take a 9-6 lead.
"Give Fresno State credit because they never gave up," Murakami said. "Now, we're up against it. We needed to win this game considering what San Diego State did at San Jose.
"Even if we win two at BYU, it might not be enough if San Diego State wins all three with New Mexico. I'm proud of our kids because they fought hard, but we really needed to win at least three this weekend to stay in the race."
Even with the bad luck in the seventh, Hawaii came back to score four runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 10-9 lead on a run-scoring double by Robert Medeiros, two RBI singles by Kelly Konishi and Darren Blakely, and a sacrifice fly by Daren Masanda.
"I felt really confident at that point," Murakami said. "We had Robby Robinson in there, needing only six outs to get the sweep. But he couldn't get it done."
The senior yielded six earned runs on five hits in the eighth to fall to 3-8 for the season. He came in during the first game to pick up a save for McNally, but just wasn't as effective in the night cap.
McNally, who was battling a nasty virus, pitched well enough to raise his record to 3-2 with the victory in the opener. The Rainbows rallied for four runs in the eighth to win twice at Fresno State for the first time in school history.
The key blow of that inning was a two-run single to center by freshman Jamie Aloy. Medeiros also had an excellent afternoon. He went 4-for-4 in the second game with two homers, four RBIs and four runs scored. He was 2-for-4 in the first game. Over the weekend, he raised his season average an astonishing 13 points to .374.
The Rainbows left for Provo, Utah, today. It will be the first time Hawaii has played at BYU since 1992. The Rainbows have never swept the Cougars in their own back yard.
Murakami will go with Daven Hermosura in the opener, McNally in the second game and freshman Dusty Bergman in the finale.
"If we don't hit up there, we won't win, it's that simple," Murakami said. "I look for all three games to be pretty high-scoring."
Box Score
Regular scheduled game
Hawaii Fresno State ab r h bi ab r h bi Nakano lf 4 0 0 0 Hook ss 2 1 0 0 Honma lf 1 0 0 0 Tafoya rf 4 1 1 0 Dartt ss 5 2 3 0 Chiaramonte c 3 0 1 0 Millichap rf 5 1 2 0 Peramisco cf 3 1 1 0 Medeiros c 4 1 2 2 Levingston 1b 3 1 1 0 Konishi dh 4 1 1 0 da Luz 3b 4 0 0 0 Murphy 3b 4 1 1 1 Prieto dh 0 0 0 0 Aloy 1b 3 0 1 2 Pettyjohn pr 0 0 0 0 Masanda 2b 4 0 1 1 DeCanio dh 2 0 0 1 Blakely cf 4 0 0 0 Dyt lf 4 0 1 0 Rupcich 2b 4 0 1 0 Totals 38 6 11 6 Totals 29 4 6 2 Hawaii 000 011 040--6 Fresno State 100 200 100--4E--Medeiros, Murphy, Peramisco. DP--Hawaii 1 (Dartt-Masanda-Aloy). LOB--Hawaii 6, Fresno State 11.2B--Millichap (21), Tafoya (3). HR--Murphy (3). SH--Tafoya, da Luz. SF--Peramisco, DeCanio.
IP H R ER BB SO McNally (W, 3-2) 8-1/3 6 4 3 6 4 Robinson (S, 2) 2/3 0 0 0 1 1 Griffin (L, 5-2) 7-1/3 11 6 5 1 6 Graham 1-2/3 0 0 0 0 2WP--McNally. PB--Chiaramonte. CI--Medeiros. HBP--by McNally (Prieto).T--2:36. Umpires--Marple (plate), Scarbery (first), Nicholson (third).
Fresno State Hawaii ab r h bi ab r h bi Hook ss 4 0 1 1 Nakano dh 5 0 0 0 Williams ph 1 1 1 0 Dartt ss 5 0 1 0 Rupcich 2b 1 1 1 0 Murphy 3b 4 2 1 0 Pearse 2b 4 1 1 0 Pico 3b 1 0 0 0 Howard ph 1 0 0 0 Medeiros c 4 4 4 4 Lopez ss 0 0 0 0 Konishi rf 5 2 2 0 Chiaramonte c 5 3 3 3 Aloy 1b 5 2 2 0 Peramisco cf 6 3 3 4 Honma lf 5 1 4 0 Levingston 1b 4 2 1 1 Masanda 2b 3 0 1 3 da Luz 3b 6 2 3 3 Blakely cf 3 0 1 1 DeCanio dh 4 1 1 1 Aukerman lf 3 1 1 0 Dyt lf 1 0 1 2 Tafoya rf 5 1 2 1 Totals 45 16 19 16 Totals 40 11 16 10 Fresno State 110 011 561--16 Hawaii 022 200 410--11E--Dartt, Masanda. DP--Fresno State 1 (Lopez-Rupcich-Levingston). LOB--Fresno State 8, Hawaii 6.2B--Chiaramonte (11), Peramisco 3 (19), da Luz (10), Aukerman (2), Medeiros (13), Konishi (5), Aloy (4). HR--Chiaramonte (21), Medeiros 2 (7). SB--Blakely (6). SH--Lopez, Masanda, Blakely. SF--Masanda.
IP H R ER BB SO Rowe 3 7 6 6 1 3 Goodrich 3-1/3 7 4 4 0 4 Graham (W, 3-3) 2-2/3 2 1 1 0 2 Bergman 5 7 4 4 1 5 Mackenzie 1-2/3 4 4 4 0 0 Yoshimasu 0 1 1 0 0 0 Robinson (L, 3-8) 1 5 6 6 2 0 Spurgeon 1-1/3 2 1 1 1 1Rowe faced three batters in the fourth inning; Yoshimasu faced one batter in the seventh inning.WP--Goodrich. HBP--by Robinson (DeCanio).
T--3:03. A--4,239. Umpires--LaBelle (plate), Nicholson (first), Wagner (third).
WAC
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Pct. San Jose St. 17 10 .630 -- 33 19 .635 Fresno St. 17 10 .630 -- 31 21 .596 San Diego St. 14 10 .583 1-1/2 32 16 .663 Hawaii 11 13 .458 31/2 19 31 .380San Diego State has one tie.
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Utah 18 6 .750 -- 31 17 .643 Brigham Young 17 7 .708 1 29 12 .707 Grand Canyon 4 19 .174 13-1/2 12 35 .255 Air Force 4 19 .174 13-1/2 11 32 .256Utah has one tie.
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Rice 18 8 .692 -- 36 13 .735 Texas Christian 12 13 .480 5-1/2 22 24 .478 Nev-Las Vegas 7 15 .318 9 21 27 .438 New Mexico 6 15 .286 9-1/2 19 27 .413Hawaii 6, Fresno State 4 (1st)
Fresno State 16, Hawaii 11 (2nd)
San Diego St. 6, San Jose St. 2
Air Force 18, Grand Canyon 10 (1st)
Grand Canyon 10, Air Force 4 (2nd)
