RAINBOW BASEBALL
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Teammates congratulated Kris Sanchez, right, yesterday after he homered for the third day in a row against Pacific.
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UH batters Pacific for 3-game sweep
The 'Bows' Sanchez homers for the third straight game
At this rate, Hawaii first baseman Kris Sanchez won't have any room left in his trophy case by the end of the season.
Next Up at UCSB on Friday
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The two-time reigning Western Athletic Conference hitter of the week capped off another impressive series with his third home run in as many games and Evan Zimny broke out of a season-long slump with three hits as the Rainbows knocked off Pacific 8-3 yesterday to complete a three-game sweep of the Tigers.
A Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,253 saw the Rainbows (7-2) finish with 14 hits as they won their fifth straight game.
"Today was a big game for us," Sanchez said. "We talk about being 'Sunday' tough and didn't want to go into cruise control like we did (on Saturday)."
The 6-foot-3 senior finished the series 5-for-13 with three homers and nine RBIs and is batting .543 for the season with a slugging percentage over a thousand.
"He's not going to go out there and hit .600 every series," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "I keep saying that, but he keeps doing it. Even some of his outs he's had good approaches and is really getting some good swings off."
For the second straight day, the Warriors took an early 4-0 lead, but this time, they had an immediate answer every time the Tigers (2-5) tried to get a rally started.
Hawaii took advantage of two mistakes by Pacific second baseman Adam Ching to take an early 1-0 lead. Sanchez opened the bottom of the second inning by reaching on a Ching error, and later scored with one out on a fly ball by Landon Hernandez that Ching lost in the sun, resulting in a hit.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii second baseman Nate Young couldn't come up with this line drive yesterday.
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An RBI double by Zimny capped a three-run third inning as the Rainbows built a 4-0 lead for starting pitcher Joshua Schneider. Making his second start of the season, Schneider cruised through the first four innings before running into trouble in the fifth. With one out, he nailed Denis Hill with a pitch before giving up an RBI double to Ching. After another hit batter, Jayson Kramer came in to replace Schneider and got Mike Walker to ground into an inning-ending double play, leaving the bases loaded.
"I didn't like the way (Schneider) was throwing," Trapasso said. "It was too similar to yesterday's game. We had the four-run lead and we start getting behind in counts, started walking guys, and all that does is let them back into the game."
"I just went to the 'pen and Jayson got in and got the big ground ball that was the key to the game."
Sanchez answered quickly in the bottom of the inning, leading off with his third homer of the season on a ball that was crushed off the scoreboard in right-center.
Hawaii added another run when Eli Christensen scored on a bunt by Ryan Asato to increase the lead to 6-1, and could have really pulled away from the Tigers, but pitcher Jake Wild got back-to-back strikeouts of Nathan Young and Justin Frash with the bases loaded to end the inning.
"I'm just seeing the ball well and trying to put a good swing on it," Sanchez said. "Three home runs is great, but I've got some more work to do. I let a couple of at-bats get away with runners in scoring position that I need to work on a little bit more."
The Tigers cut into the lead with a two-run single by Hill in the sixth inning that made the score 6-3, but as was the case all day, the Rainbows got the two runs back in the bottom of the inning as Zimny connected with another run-scoring single and then scored on another Tigers error.
Zimny entered the game just 5-for-26 for the season, but went 3-for-5 with two RBIs for his best performance of the season.
Kramer picked up the win for the Warriors, giving up two runs on four hits in 2 1/3 innings. Nicholas Rhodes closed out the game with two hitless innings of relief.
The Rainbows hit the road for the first time this season as they take on UC Santa Barbara next weekend.
Hawaii 8, Pacific 3
Pacific |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
Hawaii |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
|
Ching 2b |
5 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Franco lf |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0
|
Oliveira clf |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Young 2b |
5 |
1 |
2 |
0
|
Walker 1b |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Frash 3b |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0
|
Baum 3b |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Haislet cf |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1
|
Haar dhp |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Sanchez 1b |
4 |
2 |
1 |
1
|
Chamberlin rf |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Christensen ss |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0
|
Centanni cf |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
Zimny rf |
5 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
|
Manning lf |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Hernandez c |
4 |
0 |
3 |
1
|
Murray lf |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Asato dh |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Wideman phc |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
Hill ss |
3 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
Totals |
32 |
3 |
7 |
3 |
Totals |
36 |
8 |
14 |
6 |
|
Pacific |
|
|
|
000 |
012 |
000 |
-- |
3 |
7 |
3
|
Hawaii |
|
|
|
013 |
022 |
00x |
-- |
8 |
14 |
2 |
E--Ching; Baum; Manning; Christensen 2. DP-- Hawaii 3. LOB--Pacific 9, Hawaii 13. 2B--Ching; Chamberlin; Zimny. HR-- Sanchez. HBP--Oliveira; Wideman; Hill. SF--Haislet. SB--Haislet.
Pacific |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO
|
Carnevale (L, 1-1) |
3 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
2
|
Wild |
2 2/3 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
3
|
Haar |
2 1/3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
|
Hawaii |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO
|
Schneider |
4 1/3 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
|
Kramer (W, 1-0) |
2 2/3 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1
|
Rhodes |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
HBP--by Schneider (Hill); by Schneider (Oliveira); by Kramer (Wideman).
Umpires--Dan Farsworth (plate); Ozzie Ortiz (first); Cary Izuka (third).
T--3:02. A--2,385.