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Monday, April 24, 2000
Rice dims Hawaii’s
From staff and wire reports
baseball title hopesHOUSTON - The University of Hawaii's baseball title hopes are fading faster than the sun sinks behind the Houston skyline.
The Rice Owls stopped the Rainbows for the second consecutive day, 7-3, in a Western Athletic Conference game at Reckling Park yesterday.
The loss dropped the Rainbows (22-24 overall, 9-11 WAC) into a fourth-place tie with Texas Christian. Hawaii is 4-1/2 games out of first.
UH starter Randon Ho lasted just two innings, but still struck out four Owls.
After Jayme Sperring doubled to start the second inning, Ho's third victim, Tony Adler, reached first base on a swinging, third strike wild pitch.
Two more wild pitches in the inning allowed two Owls to score. Matt Fox also doubled home a teammate and later scored on a sacrifice fly for a 4-0 lead.
"I can't believe they charged Randon with three wild pitches. Maybe one, but the other two went right under Kenn Wakakuwa's glove," said Hawaii head coach Les Murakami.
"Randon pitched well. Otherwise he wouldn't have struck out four guys.
"I've told Kenny not to bring the offense to the defense. He grounded out in the top of the inning with a man on second and came back to the dugout all pissed. He did his job. He got the man to third."
Wakakuwa is one who strives for perfection, and he was trying to drive Danny Kimura home.
Rice's 4-0 lead was held in check until the eighth, due in part to the relief effort by Hawaii's Gavin Garrick.
The junior right-hander went 4 innings, allowed just four hits, walked no one and fanned two.
"I wanted to see Gavin go long because he's a future starter. He pitched fantastic," Murakami said.
Jamie Aloy's two-run single sparked a three-run eighth inning for the Rainbows.
The Owls (27-19, 12-10) then came right back with three runs in the bottom of the inning.
The teams finish their series today.
OWLS 7, RAINBOWS 3
HAWAII AB R H BI RICE AB R H BI Mitchell rf 4 1 2 1 Smith 2b 4 0 1 0 Purtell 2b 2 0 1 0 Van Noy cf 3 0 1 2 Aloy 1b 4 0 1 2 Ackal rf 4 0 1 0 Kimura dh 4 0 1 0 Arnold ss 4 0 0 0 Wakakuwa c 4 0 1 0 Sperring 1b-p 4 2 2 0 Martines lf 3 0 0 0 Adler dh 3 1 0 0 Scalabrini 3b 4 1 1 0 Michaelis 1b 1 1 1 0 Pico ss 4 1 1 0 Lukin c 4 1 2 0 Baker cf 3 0 0 0 Fox 3b 4 1 3 2 Roman lf 3 1 1 1 Totals 32 3 8 3 Totals 34 7 12 5
Hawaii 000 000 030 - 3 8 0 Rice 030 000 03x - 7 12 2 E-Lukin (5), Fox (10).
DP-Hawaii 1 (Scalabrini-Aloy), Rice 4 (Roman-Lukin, Fox-Sperring, Skaggs-Arnold-Sperring, Smith-Arnold). LOB-Hawaii 5, Rice 8.
2B-Sperring (2), Lukin (6), Fox (8). SB-Purtell (2). CS-Fox (3). SF-Van Noy (2).
Hawaii
IP H R ER BB SO Ho (L, 5-7) 2 4 4 4 1 4 Garrick 4-2/3 0 0 0 0 2 Jones 1/3 1 1 1 0 0 Yamashita 0 3 2 2 0 0 Olivera 1/3 0 0 0 2 0 Lee 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 San Jose State
IP H R ER BB SO Skaggs (W, 8-2) 7-1/3 7 3 2 2 3 Barzilla 0 1 0 0 0 0 Sperring (S, 3) 1-2/3 0 0 0 0 1 Barzilla pitched to one batter in the eighth inning.
Jones pitched to one batter in the eighth inning.
Yamashita pitched to one batter in the eighth inning.
WP-Ho 3 (6). HBP-Ackal (by Ho), Purtell (by Skaggs).
Umpires-Oros (plate), Chandler (first), McKeown (third). T-2:28. A-1,610.
WAC STANDINGS
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct. Fresno State 14 7 .667 32 12 .727 San Jose State 14 7 .667 28 16 .636 Rice 12 10 .545 27 19 .587 Hawaii 9 11 .450 22 24 .478 Texas Christian 9 11 .450 18 27 .409 Hawaii-Hilo 6 18 .250 15 28 .349 Yesterday's result
Rice 7, Hawaii 3
Today's game
Hawaii at Rice, 2 p.m.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
