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Friday, March 31, 2000

Warriors prove
too much for
Rainbows

Hawaii can't hold a 3-0 lead as
Lewis-Clark State rallies for 9-5 win
and first place in Easter Tournament

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

For seven innings last night, the University of Hawaii baseball team seemed ready to dig out of an annoying rut.

The Rainbows had been on a win-a-game, lose a game streak, and Hawaii head coach Les Murakami had wondered aloud when his team would get on a run.

It did not happen last night.

Lewis-Clark State took care of that with a six-run eighth inning.

The Warriors' 9-5 win put them in first place in the 25th Rainbow Easter Tournament with two days of round-robin games left before Sunday's title showdown.

Last night, right-hander Grant Sato made his first UH start and pitched creditable ball. With the help of two double plays, he left after five innings with the scored tied at 3-3.

Left-hander Aaron Pribble followed with two perfect innings of relief and the Rainbows took a 5-3 lead during his mound stint.

Murakami then made a decision he would question later.

"I just left Pribble in too long. He did a good job for two innings and I shouldn't have sent him out for another," Murakami said.

"But, his innings were so fast, that's the reason I left him in. If he had put someone on base, it would have been different, but he went one, two, three like that."

Pribble hit the first batter he faced in the eighth and walked the second.

Ian Jones replaced Pribble. After Chad Kline sacrificed, left-handed pinch hitter J.R. Diaz ripped a two-run double into the right-field corner to tie the score.

"Sometimes you want to see what someone can do," Murakami said. "When they brought in the lefty, I had a lefty ready (in the bullpen). But that's OK, next time I'll bring in the lefty."

Kurt Koshelnik was safe on UH shortstop Rory Pico's fourth error of the game. Jones walked Jason Ellison to load the bases ending his tour of duty.

Sean Yamashita, making his fourth consecutive appearance, got Elliot Strankman to hit a grounder to short, but the 'Bows could not turn the double play.

Kyle Woods followed with a single and Matt Hellman doubled into the left-field corner to score the final two Warriors.

"I brought Sean in because I felt if anyone was going to stop them with a breaking pitch, it was him," Murakami said.

The Rainbows left 10 men on base. A sign of things to come occurred in the fourth inning.

Kenn Wakakuwa led off with a double to the left-center field alley and stole third. The Warriors played their infield back, willing to concede the run, but the 'Bows couldn't put the ball in play.

LCS starter Mike Chavez struck out Rah-Miel Mitchell and Kramer Akoi, then got Patrick Scalabrini on a sharp liner to second.

Kyle Correa, a freshman left-hander from Aiea High School, retired six of seven 'Bows to preserve the win for David Aguilar.

Pepperdine 12, Winthrop 2: The Waves won for the first time as Danny Garcia and Damon Katz each had three RBIs.

"I thought we've been playing well in the tournament. If there was a problem, it was our untimely hitting and that's hard to overcome," Pepperdine head coach Frank Sanchez said.

'BOW BUNTS: UH right-hander Rich Snider will start against Winthrop tonight. ... Left-hander Randon Ho gets the start against Pepperdine tomorrow night.

Rainbow Easter Tournament

	Conference	Overall
Team	W	L	Pct.	W	L	Pct.
Lewis-Clark St.	3	1	.750	27	6	.818
Winthrop	2	2	.500	20	14	.588
Hawaii	2	2	.500	19	16	.543
Pepperdine	1	3	.250	19	13	.594

Yesterday's results

Pepperdine 14, Winthrop 2
Lewis-Clark State 9, Hawaii 5

Today's games

Pepperdine vs. Lewis-Clark State, 2:30 p.m.
Hawaii vs. Winthrop, 6:37 p.m.

Tomorrow's games

Winthrop vs. Lewis-Clark State, 2:30 p.m.
Hawaii vs. Pepperdine, 6:37 p.m.

Warriors 9, Rainbows 5

Lewis-Clark St	ab	r	h	bi	Hawaii	ab	r	h	bi
Ellison cf	3	0	0	0	Takamori rf	5	1	2	1
Strankman ss	5	2	1	1	Pico ss	3	1	0	0
Woods lf	4	1	2	2	Chan ph	1	0	0	0
Hellman rf	5	0	1	1	Nogawa ss	0	0	0	0
Johnston dh	3	1	1	0	Aloy 1b	2	2	1	1
Y. Kimura ph	1	1	0	0	D. Kimura dh	4	0	0	1
Brown 1b	3	2	3	1	Wakakuwa 2b	4	0	1	0
Kline 3b	3	0	0	1	Mitchell lf	5	0	2	1
Boruff c	2	0	0	0	Aoki c	3	0	0	0
Pierce c	1	0	0	0	Scalabrini 3b	3	1	1	0
Diaz c	2	1	1	2	Jackson cf	3	0	0	0
Koshelnik 2b	5	1	1	1
Totals	37	9	10	9	Totals	33	5	7	4

Lewis-Clark State	000	210	060 -	9	10	2
Hawaii	000	031	100 -	5	7	4

E-Strankman (12), Kline (9), Pico 4 (10).

DP-Hawaii 2 (Pico-Wakakuwa-Aloy, Wakakuwa-Pico-Aloy). LOB-Lewis-Clark State 9, Hawaii 10.

2B-Hellman, Brown, Diaz, Wakakuwa (5). SB-Strankman 2 (5), Takamori (16), Wakakuwa (3), Mitchell (2). CS-Takamori (5). S-Kline (1), Jackson (2). SF-Kline (2), D. Kimura (4).

	ip	h	r	er	bb	so
Lewis-Clark State
Chavez	4 2/3	4	3	3	5	5
Aguilar (W, 2-0)	2 1/3	3	2	1	1	2
Correa	2	0	0	0	0	1
Hawaii
Sato	5	6	3	2	2	4
Pribble	2	0	2	2	1	1
Jones (L, 0-1)	1/3	1	3	1	1	0
Yamashita	1/3	2	1	0	0	0
Olivera	1 1/3	1	0	0	0	1

Pribble pitched to two batters in the eighth inning.
WP-Chavez (1), Aguilar (3). Balk-Chavez (4), Olivera (2). HBP-Aloy (by Chavez), Woods (by Sato), Y. Kimura (by Pribble).
Umpires-Torres (plate), Ogawa (first), Pittman (third). T-3:26. A-1,309.

Waves 14, Eagles 2

7 innings, 12-run rule

Pepperdine	111	317	0 -	14	15	1
Winthrop	100	000	1 -	2	7	3

Eric Valenzuela and Dane Sardinha, Jason Cavnar (6); Jeff Reeves, Sean Atchinson (3), Ryan Chenard (6), Geoff Cheek (6), David Good (7) and John Neale.
Leading hitters-Pepperdine: Austin Evans, 2-5, 3b; Danny Garcia ,4-5, 2b, 3 RBIs; Jeremy Coronado, 2-4, 2 RBIs; Mike Falco, 2b; Damon Katz, 3-3, 2 2b, 3 RBIs; Tony Garcia, 2 RBIs. Winthrop: Luc Riople, 2-3; Todd Leathers, 2b; Conrad Funk, 2b.

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