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Saturday, January 27, 2001
Rainbows CARL Furutani knew reliever Bryan Lee had been roughed up Thursday night.
hound Hornets
Hawaii can sweep the
series with a win todayRealAudio: 'Net broadcast Click Here
By Pat bigold
Star-BulletinHe was tagged for four earned runs in two-thirds of an inning against Cal State Sacramento in Hawaii's extra-inning win.
It was enough to qualify a pitcher for the doghouse.
So no one could've blamed the acting Hawaii head baseball coach if he'd played it safe and called on another fireman when the Rainbows were feeling the heat in the late innings last night.
But Furutani turned to his 6-foot-1, 190-pound right-handed sophomore anyway.
And Lee responded with a poised performance that carried the Rainbows to a 5-1 victory over the Hornets before 1,168 fans last night at Rainbow Stadium.
"I always tell my ball players that what it all comes down to is trust and belief in one another," said Furutani. "If I believe that, I have to throw this guy right back in the fire and let him know that I'm behind him."
It was the second win in as many nights for Hawaii (2-0) against the Hornets (0-2).
The Rainbows got all the offense they needed with four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie.
But Cal State Sacramento had a chance to do just as much damage in the top half of the seventh.
With one out and Hawaii ahead 1-0, Mario Celillo singled against right-hander Chad Giannetti and lefty reliever Ryan Yamamoto hit the next two batters (Tito Barba and Aurelio Jackson) to load the bases.
In came Lee.
He forced Cory Williams to pop out on an 0-2 count to shortstop before yielding an RBI single on a similar count to Dave Lusk.
Lee then bore down and got designated hitter Joe Evans to ground out on a 1-2 pitch to end the inning.
With a four-run lead in the ninth, Lee finished the game by striking out a swinging John Frietas, forcing Chris Kinsey to pop out on a first pitch and catching Tim Magham looking on an 0-2 delivery.
"I just tried to stay within myself and stay focused," said Lee, a Mid-Pacific Institute product. "I never thought I'd be the pitcher of record."
Lee said he didn't worry much about the run (charged to Giannetti) that scored during his stint.
"I knew my offense would be able to get some runs on the board," he said.
Derek Honma led off the eighth for Hawaii with a walk against losing pitcher Adam Rakela. DH Matthew Purtell followed with a kamikaze face-first dive into first on a bunt down the left side, advancing Honma to third.
Patrick Scalabrini then walked to load the bases.
Hornets head coach John Smith called in right-hander Jared Redden to handle the emergency.
Redden's first warm-up pitch went far over the head of catcher Brian Bock, a possible signal that he wasn't up to the task.
On his first official pitch, Redden hit second baseman Gregg Omori, forcing in what ended up as the winning run (Honma).
"He got me in the back but it wasn't that bad," said Omori. "It was a curve ball that got away from him."
Purtell scored on a balk by Redden before Arthur Guillen, who came in as a pinch runner in the seventh, delivered the big blow.
Guillen picked on a 1-2 pitch by Redden and bounced it over the second baseman's head into right field, driving in Purtell and Omori.
Smith said he decided not to lift Redden even though he had a reliever warming up.
"After that single there was no sense taking him out," said Smith. "I just hoped he'd get out of the inning and I save my other guy for the next day."
Hawaii and Cal State Sacramento play again today at 1 p.m.
Although he didn't figure in the decision, right-handed starter Sean Yamashita pitched masterfully over the first five innings for Hawaii, shutting out the Hornets on no hits and striking out seven. He retired the first 12 batters he faced.
Rainbows 5, Hornets 1
Sac. State ab r h bi Hawaii ab r h bi Jackson cf 3 0 0 0 Purtell dh 3 1 1 0 Willms 2b 4 0 0 0 Sclbni 3b 3 1 1 0 Lusk c 4 0 2 1 Omori 2b 3 1 0 1 Evans dh 4 0 1 0 Kimra 1b 4 0 0 0 Brown lf 2 0 0 0 Boudon lf 2 1 1 0 Frietas lf 1 0 0 0 Glln pr/lf 1 0 1 2 Kinsey 3b 4 0 0 0 Bock c 3 0 1 1 Mghn 1b 4 0 0 0 Mntmy rf 3 0 0 0 Celillo rf 3 1 2 0 Wilsn ss 3 0 0 0 Barba ss 1 0 0 0 Honma cf 2 1 1 0 Groeger p 0 0 0 0 Ymshta p 0 0 0 0 Rakela p 0 0 0 0 Ginnetti p 0 0 0 0 Redden p 0 0 0 0 Yamto p 0 0 0 0 Lee p 0 0 0 0 Totals 30 1 5 1 Totals 27 5 6 4
Sac State 000 000 010 -- 1 5 1 Hawaii 010 000 04x -- 5 6 1 E-Kinsey, Wilson.
LOB-Sac. 6, UH 410, UH 5.
2B-Evans, Boudon. CS--Lusk, Guillen, Honma. SH--Brown, Barba, Purtell, Bock.
Sac. State
ip h r er bb so Groeger 5 3 1 1 0 6 Rakela (L, 0-1) 2 2 3 3 3 2 Redden 1 1 1 1 0 0
Hawaii
ip h r er bb so Yamashita 5 0 0 0 0 7 Giannetti 2 1/3 4 1 1 0 0 Yamamoto 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bryan Lee (W, 1-0) 1 2/3 1 0 0 0 2 WP-Rakela. HBP-Barba (by Yamamoto), Jackson (by Yamamoto), Omori (by Redden)
Umpires-Torres (plate), LaBeau (first), Pittman (third). T-2:36. A-1,168
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
