Alexander will make the trip

Hawaii’s Asato goes deep before he has to go away

Jared Alexander will accompany the Hawaii baseball team on its final road trip of the regular season this week.

Whether he will pitch has yet to be determined.

Alexander's MRI on his injured right elbow came back negative and the junior right-hander played catch yesterday without experiencing any pain.

Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso hasn't decided if Alexander will make an appearance in the series against New Mexico State beginning Thursday, but said Alexander will make the trip to Las Cruces, N.M., either way.

The Rainbows will get a start out of Alex Bates, who did not throw last weekend against Sacramento State after feeling soreness in his shoulder that has given him problems all year.

Hawaii (24-25, 16-12 WAC) is coming off a 3-1 series win over the Hornets, thanks to a walk-off hit from sophomore Kevin Macdonald and senior Ryan Asato's first career home run.

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By Billy Hull
bhull@starbulletin.com

The clock was ticking for Rainbows designated hitter Ryan Asato.

One of only three four-year seniors on the team, the power-hitting designated hitter had only nine games left in his career to clear the fences with a home run.

Asato got the start, the 25th of his career, in Sunday's series finale against Sacramento State and stepped to the plate in the seventh inning with the 'Bows trailing 5-2.

After watching the first pitch go by for a ball, Asato connected on the next one and drilled it over the right-center field wall for the first homer of his career.

"We all know he's got good power," first baseman Kevin Macdonald said. "In (batting practice), he's got the most power on the team. We were waiting for him to unleash and he finally did."

Injuries have hampered Asato most of his career. He pulled his hamstring on a road trip against UC Irvine in the middle of March and hadn't played in more than a month.

Sunday was only the sixth game of the season, but he made the most of it and injected the team with a sense of excitement it needed.

"He's a great kid," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "He's had some bad luck with injuries, but he busts his hump. He's as good a human being as you can find on the face of the Earth."

Asato, a 2004 Mid-Pacific graduate, is one of four former Owls currently playing for the 'Bows and joins Jon Hee and Derek DuPree as the only four-year seniors on the team.

Series wins hard to come by

The Rainbows have lost only one WAC series all season and have split or won each of the last five.

But it's been a struggle recently as the Rainbows were three outs away from taking three of four at Louisiana Tech before allowing seven runs in the ninth inning to split.

The Rainbows were on the verge of a second split this weekend until scoring three runs in the ninth to erase a 7-5 deficit.

"Especially at the end of the season, it's tough for everybody to win a series," Macdonald said.

Macdonald's game-winning hit, a flare that bounced between the first and second basemen and the right-fielder, gave Hawaii its 15th win in its last 21 games.

Streak snapped

Vinnie Catricala's 15-game hitting streak was snapped in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.

That's the only bad news for Catricala, who had another outstanding series, going 7-for-15 with three runs and three RBIs.

The third baseman is batting .403 in his last 17 games and has scored at least one run in 11 of the last 13 games.

Catricala has seen his average rise to .289 for the season and leads the team with 33 RBIs and four home runs.

Quick turnaround

The Rainbows hit the road for the final WAC series of the season against New Mexico State this week.

The four-game series starts Thursday and ends with a doubleheader on Saturday.

The Rainbows have played only two series all year with the doubleheader coming on the final day of the series. The Rainbows and Aggies played the same format earlier this season in Hawaii, which was the only time the Rainbows won the second game of a twinbill.