Rainbows run into Fresno’s Romero

The lefty benefited from Justin Costi's bad day on the hill

FRESNO, Calif. » Eddie Romero defeated the Hawaii Rainbow baseball team for the third consecutive time last night over a two-year span.

Backed by a 5-0 lead after only two innings, the junior left-hander led the Fresno State Bulldogs to a 6-1 victory over UH to square the Western Athletic Conference baseball series at one win apiece.

The rubber game will be played today at 10 a.m. at Pete Beiden Field. The 'Bows (25-10 overall, 3-4 WAC) will send left-hander Ian Harrington against FSU's Andy Underwood.

UH can only hope Harrington lasts longer than Justin Costi did last night. The Bulldogs (25-10, 6-2) sent him to the showers after only 45 pitches.

The senior right-hander for the Rainbows gave up four consecutive hits in the first inning that resulted in a 3-0 FSU lead. Fresno State continued to hit the ball well in the second. A single by Eric Wetzel, who stole second, a walk to Loren Story and a groundout put runners at second and third with two down. Kent Sakamoto, who fouled off six pitches with a 2-2 count, singled to left on Costi's 11th offering to score both teammates for a 5-0 advantage.

"It all starts with the guy on the mound and Justin put us in a 5-0 hole. He had nothing, no stuff, no location from the start. He was searching for it, but he had nothing," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said.

The one positive for Hawaii was the six innings of three-hit relief that Tyler Davis provided. The junior right-hander did allow a solo homer to Ozzie Lewis in the seventh, but Davis walked none and struck out six in his longest and most effective outing of the season.

"Tyler came in and I don't know if I can come up with enough adjectives to describe the job he did. We battled and we've hit left-handers before, but we didn't have an answer for Romero," Trapasso said.

"We have come back before, but you don't want to make a habit of trying to do that."

Despite getting the leadoff batter aboard in four innings, the Rainbows offense never came close to mounting a rally. UH left 10 runners on base.

Hawaii's only run came in the third when Joe Spiers doubled to right to start the inning. He stole third and scored on Robbie Wilder's ground ball to shortstop. Romero allowed just one other Rainbow to reach third base.

Brandon Burke and Holden Sprague finished up for Romero by retiring seven of the eight Hawaii batters they faced. The only glitch was Burke's two-out walk to Jorge Franco in the eighth.

The Rainbows best chance to get back in the game came in the seventh when Spiers beat out a high chopper over the mound and Wilder walked to start the inning.

But Romero retired Jon Hee and Justin Frash on fly balls to right before giving way to Burke, who threw one pitch to Luis Avila. The UH first baseman also flied out to right.