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Saturday, February 26, 2000
Aloy helps ’Bows
By Al Chase
sting Hornets, 9-3
Star-BulletinThe final shakedown has begun for the University of Hawaii baseball team.
By this time next Saturday, Rainbow head coach Les Murakami and his assistants will have decided on a 25-man roster for the opening Western Athletic Conference series against Rice.
"I'm not putting anyone on who is hurt," Murakami said "Then the people who are not used every day must have something, offense or defense. They have to have one characteristic that will help.
"The pitchers have to be able to throw strikes and get guys out."
Last night, the Rainbows built a 9-0 lead after five innings and won the opener of a three-game series against Cal State Sacramento, 9-3, at Rainbow Stadium.
Jamie Aloy allowed just one hit through the first six innings, exited after a rough seventh, but won his second game in three starts.
It was not a typical Aloy performance in one respect. The 6-foot-3 left-hander has issued a fraction more than two walks per nine innings during his career.
Last night he walked six, including two in the seventh when the Hornets (3-8) took advantage of two hits and two UH infield errors to score their runs.
"The game went by pretty smoothly until the seventh," Aloy said. "My control was off a little bit here and there and nothing worked consistently throughout."
Fortunately, the Rainbow batters had their seventh consecutive double digit hit night.
Both the two-run first and three-run third started with Sean Takamori drawing a walk from CSS starter Matt Nielsen.
"Sean didn't hit, but he made things happen," Murakami said.
Derek Honma doubled home Takamori in the first and later scored on the first of three Kenn Wakakuwa singles.
Danny Kimura, who singled to extend his hitting streak to seven games, brought Takamori home with a sacrifice fly in the third.
Patrick Scalabrini got his first extra base hit of the season with a two-run double into the left-field corner that closed out the scoring in the fifth.
The 6-2 right-handed Scalabrini also grounded out to second base twice, which may seem unimportant but UH (6-10) coaches have been trying to get Scalabrini to go that way with certain pitches.
"I've never been in a slump like this and I've been putting too much pressure on myself," said Scalabrini, who was hitting .231 coming into the series.
"I've been going up there thinking too much. I've been freezing on inside pitches. Tonight, I just went up to get my hacks."
Wakakuwa, who raised his average to .323, is in a good groove right now.
"If I'm seeing the ball real well, it doesn't matter where it comes from," said Wakakuwa. "I was picking the ball up out of his (Nielsen) hand so good."
The only time he did not hit safely was in the fifth on a hit-and-run play with Kimura on first.
"It was a good pitch to hit and I just wanted to make sure he got there safely," said Wakakuwa, who grounded out.
Scooter Martines showed he is getting better at handling breaking pitches by drilling one to right-center field for a triple that started the big fifth inning.
In the only WAC game last night, Fresno State scored three runs in the ninth to beat host Rice, 5-2. It was the Bulldogs 10 consecutive victory.
Rainbows 9, Hornets 3
Sacramento ab r h bi Hawaii ab r h b1 Jackson cf 4 1 1 0 Takamori rf 2 2 0 0 Krebs ss 3 0 0 0 Honma cf 4 2 2 1 Morales 2b 3 0 0 0 Martines lf 3 2 1 0 Martinez dh 4 0 1 0 Baker lf 0 0 0 0 Brown lf 2 0 0 0 Kimura dh 4 1 1 2 Carson lf 1 0 0 0 Wkakw 2b-1b 4 0 3 3 Butler 3b 4 1 2 0 Nogawa ss 3 1 0 0 Clark rf 2 0 0 0 Bock 1b 4 0 2 0 Lusk c 4 1 0 0 Purtell pr-2b 0 0 0 0 Maghan 1b 2 0 0 1 Aoki c 3 1 1 1 Scalabrini 3b 4 0 1 2 Totals 30 3 4 1 Totals 31 9 11 9
Cal State Sacramento 000 000 300 - 3 4 0 Hawaii 203 040 00x - 9 11 3 E-Wakakuwa (2), Scalabrini 2 (4).
DP-CSS 2 (Morales-Krebs-Maghan 2), UH 2 (Nogawa-Wakakuwa), Wakakuwa-Nogawa-Bock). LOB-CSS 10, UH 7.
2B-Honma (3), Scalabrini (1). 3B-Martines (1). SB-Honma (7), Takamori (7). CS-Purtell (1). SF-Kimura (1), Maghan (1).
ip h r er bb so Santa Clara Nielsen (L, 0-2) 3 5 5 5 4 3 Cuckovich 1 4 4 4 2 1 Robinson 2° 2 0 0 1 1 Penbera 1 0 0 0 1 1 Hawaii Aloy (W, 2-1) 7 3 3 1 6 3 Sato 2 1 0 0 1 3 Nielsen pitched to one batter in the fourth inning.
PB-Lusk. HBP-Morales (by Aloy), Clark (by Sato).
Umpires-Montalbo (plate), LeBeau (first), Ogawa (third). T-2:54. A-1,072.
WAC standings
Conference Overall Team W L Pct. W L Pct. Fresno State 1 0 1.000 10 2 .833 San Jose State 0 0 .000 7 2 .778 Hawaii-Hilo 0 0 .000 9 10 .474 Hawaii 0 0 .000 6 10 .375 Texas Christian 0 0 .000 4 9 .308 Rice 0 1 .000 6 7 .462 Yesterday's results
Hawaii 9, Cal State Sacramento 3
Fresno State 5, Rice 2
Today's games
Cal State Sacramento at Hawaii, 6:35 p.m.
Hawaii-Hilo at San Jose State
Fresno State at Rice
Texas Christian at Lamar (2)
Tomorrow's games
Cal State Sacramento at Hawaii, 3:05 p.m.
Hawaii-Hilo at San Jose State
Fresno State at Rice
Texas Christian at Lamar
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
