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Saturday, April 17, 1999


R A I N B O W _ B A S E B A L L



UH


’Bows pound on Vulcans

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

Tapa

Hawaii head baseball coach Les Murakami meant absolutely no disrespect for last night's opponent when he said, "We're not going to see this kind of pitching when we play Rice."

Coaches normally don't look ahead to an upcoming series and often have to chide players about doing that, but Murakami knows next weekend's Western Athletic Conference encounter with the No. 3 ranked Owls is big.

He also is aware that junior right-hander Rich Snider must be much sharper next week.

"If Rich pitches like this against Rice, he's going to have trouble," Murakami said, after Snider scattered four hits in seven innings to spark the Rainbows past UH-Hilo, 17-1.

This weekend's action should determine UH's starting rotation for the three games against Rice. Fortunately, Hawaii enjoys depth this season, but, as Murakami said, "A lot of our depth has gone down the drain. If it were last year, we'd be dead already."

And maybe this is the UH skipper's way of not letting last night's victory, with accompanying 21-hit outburst, over the Vulcans (8-36) leave his Rainbows with a false sense of accomplishment.

In many ways, the Rainbows (27-13) looked like they picked up right where they left off in the Air Force series, even to a few home-run cuts taken by some of the 'Bows. They scored in every inning but the second, which both helped and hindered Snider.

"I really didn't have my stuff tonight. They (the Vulcans) helped me out by swinging at a lot of bad pitches," said Snider, who evened his record at 4-4.

"I actually was throwing well in the pen before the game, but had trouble with my location during the game. And, we had some long innings," Snider said.

This was the same situation he experienced in his Air Force start. As his teammates scored at will, Snider tended to get a little stiff while watching the offensive merry-go-round from the dugout.

"He threw pretty well. I think it was more mental stuff. His focus wasn't there all the time," said UH pitching coach Carl Furutani.

Murakami was able to play every healthy Rainbow suited up.

Redshirt freshman Wade Taguchi made the most of his appearance with a two-run homer in the seventh inning and an RBI single in the eighth.

"I just go up and put my best swing on the ball. It was a change-up in and I was able to see it all the way," said Taguchi.

Backup first baseman/catcher Jeremy Stegmaier got his first hit of the season, an RBI single to center in the eighth.

Jamie Aloy was 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

STREAKING: Sean Takamori extended his hitting streak to 10 games. Tracy Nakano and Corey Miller now have six-game streaks going.

Tapa

WAC

			W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L	Pct.
Rice			16	3	.842	--	37	8	.822
Texas Christian		15	3	.833	1/2	24	16	.600
Nevada-Las Vegas	10	7	.588	5	21	23	.477
San Diego St.		9	9	.500	61/2	22	21	.517
San Jose St.		8	8	.500	61/2	18	19	.487
New Mexico		9	10	.474	7	22	21	.511
Hawaii			8	10	.444	71/2	27	13	.675
Brigham Young		7	13	.350	91/2	19	25	.432	
Utah			5	10	.333	9	17	19	.472	
Fresno St.		5	11	.313	91/2	22	25	.468	
Air Force		3	11	.214	101/2	17	22	.436
New Mexico & San Jose St. played one tie game.

Yesterday's results

Hawaii 17, Hawaii-Hilo 1

Fresno State 10, San Jose State 3

Nevada-Las Vegas 13, Utah 9

Rice 5, New Mexico 2

San Diego State 23, Brigham Young 14

Texas Christian 14, Air Force 11

Today's games

Hawaii-Hilo vs. Hawaii, War Memorial Stadium

Air Force at Texas Christian

Nevada-Las Vegas at Utah

New Mexico at Rice

San Jose State at Fresno State

Hawaii 17, Hawaii-Hilo 1

Hawaii-Hilo	AB	R	H	BI	Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI
Chu cf		4	0	0	0	Takamori rf	3	2	2	0
Chaves ss	3	1	0	0	Honma rf	0	1	0	0
Yap 2b		4	0	1	1	Dartt 2b	6	3	2	1
Sanchez 2b	0	0	0	0	Aloy 1b	4	3	3	4
McCracken c	2	0	1	0	Stegmr ph/1b	1	1	1	1
Jinbo ph	1	0	0	0	Martines dh	5	0	2	1
Wallis dh	3	0	0	0	Tanigawa ph	1	0	1	0
Yee 1b		2	0	0	0	Nakano lf	4	2	3	1
Yates ph/lf	2	0	0	0	Baker ph/lf	2	0	0	0
Rayl 3b		3	0	1	0	Nogawa 3b	4	1	2	1
Takahashi rf	3	0	0	0	Taguchi ph/3b	2	1	2	3
Lynch rf	0	0	0	0	Miller ss	4	0	1	1
Miura lf	3	0	1	0	Castro ph/3b	0	0	0	1
	 	 	 	 		Wakakuwa c	3	1	2	1
	 	 	 	 		Hansen c	1	1	0	0
	 	 	 	 		Mitchell cf	3	1	0	0
Totals		30	1	4	1	Totals		43	17	21	15
Hawaii-Hilo	000	100	000--1	4	2
Hawaii		301	212	35X--17	21	0
E--Sanchez (9), Tanaka (1). DP--Hawaii-Hilo 1 (Yap-Chaves-Yee), Hawaii 1 (Dartt-Miller-Aloy). LOB--Hawaii-Hilo 5, Hawaii 12.

2B--Yap (4), Rayl (6), Aloy (14), Martines (8). HR--Taguchi (1). SB--Nakano (9), Mitchell (7). SH--Miller (4). SF--Castro (1), Wakakuwa (2).

Hawaii-Hilo	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Siff (L, 0-6)	3.2	11	6	6	1	1
Agustin		1.1	4	3	2	1	0
Tanaka		2	3	3	3	0	0
Park		0	0	3	2	2	0
Sumibcay	1	3	2	1	0	0
Hawaii		IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Snider (W, 4-4)	7	4	1	1	3	5
Jones		1	0	0	0	0	0
Baptista	1	0	0	0	0	0
WP--Siff 2 (6), Snider (3). HBP--Mitchell 2 (by Agustin and Park), Takamori (By Agustin). Umpires--Ogawa (plate), Torres (first), LeBeau (third). A--1184. T--2:52.



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