FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Kevin MacDonald was forced at second as Fresno's Danny Muno unsuccessfully attempted to turn a double play.

UH drops doubleheader to Fresno

STORY SUMMARY »

What began as a promising weekend ended in disappointment for the Rainbows baseball team.

Clayton Allison tossed a four-hit shutout and Steve Susdorf hit a three-run homer as the Bulldogs took the first game 5-0.

Allison struck out four and walked one to earn his first win of the season.

Susdorf scored the go-ahead run in the 10th inning of the second game on an RBI triple by Alan Ahmady to give Fresno State a 4-2 victory in the nightcap.

Hawaii has played two four-game series this year and split both after taking the first two games.

Brandon Haislet went 2-for-3 in the second game with two walks, but was caught stealing twice as Hawaii killed itself with self-induced mistakes.

Jayson Kramer was the hard-luck loser in Game 2. He pitched five innings in relief of starter Matt Daly, and cruised through the Bulldogs' order until Susdorf's double with one out in the 10th.

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FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Fresno State's Tommy Mendonca slid under the tag of UH catcher Landon Hernandez to score a run in the fifth inning.

Poor execution and a lack of hitting kept Hawaii from building an early cushion in conference play.

Alan Ahmady tripled home Steve Susdorf with the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th as Fresno State swept yesterday's doubleheader against the Rainbows to earn a split of a four-game series at Les Murakami Stadium.

Clayton Allison tossed the first shutout of his career in the opener that the Bulldogs won 5-0. A crowd of 1,535 witnessed Fresno State finish the sweep with a 4-2 victory in the nightcap to pull even with the Rainbows at 2-2 in the Western Athletic Conference.

"We played the best team in the league to a standoff and as disappointing as today was, we're off to a solid start in league," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. " We haven't dug ourselves a hole."

The Rainbows, now 9-15 for the season, never led in either game as the Bulldogs pitching staff shut them down. Hawaii was held to 10 hits in 19 innings and both runs it scored came off walks with the bases loaded.

"The truth is the only runs we got they had to give to us," Trapasso said. "That was a game of attrition. Neither team was swinging the bats well. We just didn't get the hits today that we got on Thursday and Friday."

Hawaii's inability to move runners over and a slew of mistakes on the base paths killed multiple chances to put runs on the board. Hawaii had runners on first and second with nobody out in the second inning of the nightcap when Haislet got caught in a rundown between second and third. He was stranded at third in the fourth when Hawaii missed a hit-and-run attempt that resulted in an out and was picked off at first after drawing a walk to lead off the eighth.

The Rainbows also failed to execute sacrifice bunts to the point that Sean Montplaisir didn't try one with Jon Hee on first in the ninth and nobody out. He eventually struck out.

"This was about the worst day in terms of execution we have ever had," Trapasso said. "It's disappointing because it was a day we got some good pitching."

Josh Slaats had a second consecutive strong outing on the mound in the first game. He pitched into the eighth inning and left trailing 1-0 with runners on the corners and one out. Harrison Kuroda came in and gave up an RBI single to Erik Wetzel before Susdorf took the first offering he saw deep over the fence in right for a three-run homer.

Matt Daly started the second game, but only last 4 1/3 innings. He walked five batters and struck out eight, but gave up a two-run homer to Danny Muno to put the Bulldogs on the board.

Jayson Kramer pitched out of the bullpen for the second consecutive night and retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced.

He stayed in the game until the 10th inning, when he allowed Ahmady's RBI triple. Ahmady scored two batters later on a fielder's choice by Steve Detwiler to add an insurance run the Bulldogs wouldn't need.

"When a guy comes out of the bullpen and does what (Kramer) did, it's awful getting a loss," Trapasso said. " He can hold his head high knowing he pitched his tail off tonight."

Hawaii's two runs came in the fifth, as Bulldogs starter Justin Miller loaded the bases on two walks and a hit. He was pulled for reliever Holden Sprague, who struck out Vinnie Catricala for the second out. Jeff Van Doornum and Haislet drew back-to-back walks to force in two runs that tied the game at 2. Evan Zimny just missed giving Hawaii the lead when his line drive down the left-field line landed foul by inches. He eventually grounded out to short.

"It's a game of inches," Zimny said. "An inch one way could have been three runs, which would have been huge.

Hawaii's string of 30 consecutive scoreless innings pitched came to an end in the fifth inning of the first game. Slaats gave up a two-out RBI single to Muno that scored Tommy Mendonca to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Hawaii hadn't given up a run since the first inning of Tuesday's game against San Diego.

The Rainbows will hit the road for their next nine games as they sandwich a game at Stanford in between WAC series against Sacramento State and San Jose State. Their next home game is April 10 against New Mexico State.

Fresno State 5, Hawaii 0

DP--Fresno 2. LOB--Fresno 4; Hawaii 6. 2B--Hee. HR--Susdorf. HBP--Young; Catricala; Can Doornum. SB--Mendonca, Montplaisir. CS--Muno.

HBP--by Allison(Young); by Allison (Catricala); by Allison (Van Doornum) .

Umpires--Billy Speck (Plate); Billy Haze (First); Joe Burleson (Third).

T--2:25.

Fresno State 4, Hawaii 2

E--Burke. DP--FSU 1; Hawaii 1. LOB--FSU 11; Hawaii 11. 2B--Susdorf; Haislet. 3B--Ahmady. HR--Muno. SB--Muno. CS--Haislet 2; Zimny.

HBP--by Burke (Hee); by Kramer (Overland).

Umpires--Billy Haze (Plate); Joe Burleson (First); Billy Speck (Third).

T--3:36. A--1,535.

WAC standings

Thursday
Hawaii 4, Fresno State 0
Nevada 11, Louisiana Tech 6
New Mexico State 7, San Jose State 6

Friday
Hawaii 2, Fresno State 0
Nevada 14, Louisiana Tech 3
New Mexico State 12, San Jose State 1 (game 1)
San Jose State 10, New Mexico State 8 (game 2)
Gonzaga 4, Sacramento State 3

Yesterday
Fresno State 5, Hawaii 0 (game 1)
Fresno State 4, Hawaii 2 (game 2)
Nevada 7, Louisiana Tech 6 (game 1)
Nevada 6, Louisiana Tech 4 (game 2)
New Mexico State 15, San Jose State 9
Gonzaga 9, Sacramento State 5 (game 1)
Gonzaga 18, Sacramento State 12 (game 2)