Oregon fights to avoid UH sweep
POSTED: Monday, March 01, 2010
Oregon pushed itself to the limit, but scrambled for its first win against Hawaii.
Zack Thornton threw 5 2/3 shutout innings and the Ducks took advantage of a wild Sam Spangler to defeat the Rainbows 3-0 in the second game of yesterday's doubleheader to avoid a series sweep.
Greg Garcia went 3-for-5 with two doubles and the go-ahead RBI single and Collin Bennett also had three hits as Hawaii won the first game 5-2.
A Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,024 saw the Ducks (4-4) defeat the Rainbows (4-4) for the first time in 10 tries by holding Hawaii to two hits in the finale shortened to seven innings.
The teams played a doubleheader yesterday after Saturday's game was postponed due to the tsunami warning.
“;I think I've been tornadoed out, lightninged out, rained out, fired out ... but this is the first tsunami I've experienced,”; Oregon coach George Horton said. “;I thought we were a little out of character in the first game today and trying too hard at the plate.
“;To salvage one game I think was very important getting on that long plane ride home and maybe we can get some momentum going after dropping the first three.”;
Hawaii, which won a series outright against a Pac-10 team for the first time since taking two of three against Southern California in 2006, reached double digits in hits for the first time in a game all season in the opener.
It was short-lived however, as Thornton and reliever Drew Gagnier combined to hold UH to two Bennett hits in the second game.
“;Thornton was pretty good and held us at bay,”; Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “;You give up three runs in the fourth game of a series, you give yourself a chance to win that game and we couldn't get anything done with Thornton. He was just that good.”;
Garcia, who was 2-for-20 going into yesterday, ripped doubles in his first two at-bats and scored on a balk in the third inning to give UH a 1-0 lead. He added the go-ahead RBI single in the seventh to score Breland Almadova, who led off with a double, to spur a three-run inning that was the difference in the first game.
“;Individual stats are great and all, but at the end of the day we're just trying to get wins and you just have to keep at it,”; Garcia said. “;A sweep would have been the best, but overall we played all right this weekend.”;
Alex Capaul (2-0) picked up the win, allowing three hits and a run in four innings of relief and Lenny Linsky recorded the final two outs for his third save.
The right-handed Capaul and lefty Blair Walters both had impressive outings against the Ducks, combining with Linsky to give UH quality options out of the bullpen.
“;We've got to get one or two more guys to come around and I think Connor (Little) took a step in that direction today,”; Trapasso said. “;Jesse (Moore) is critical to our bullpen success also, but it's definitely better and we got the makings of a heck of a bullpen if Lenny stays consistent the way he is and we keep getting guys to bridge from starter to closer.”;
Little replaced Spangler (0-2) in the second game after the lefty labored through 3 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits, two walks and two hit batters.
Spangler walked in a run with two outs in the fourth, ending his day. Little came in and immediately hit Jack Marder with a pitch for the second run, and a wild pitch put the Ducks up by the final margin.
He settled down and only allowed a hit over 2 1/3 innings with no walks and three strikeouts.
Hawaii's bullpen yielded only one run in 14 innings a week after struggling against nationally ranked Oregon State.
“;The first series they were kind of getting used to it with these kind of fans out here,”; said junior David Freitas, who caught all three of UH's wins over Oregon. “;The second time out, they were more comfortable throwing their pitches.”;
Freitas hit a monster home run in the first game over both fences in left field and finished with two RBIs.
Bennett was 5-for-7 in both games yesterday and hit .533 (8-for-15) in the series.
Hawaii 5, No. 25 Oregon 2
Game 1
| Oregon | AB | R | H | BI | Hawaii | AB | R | H | BI | |
| Serna ss | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Almadova cf | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Piazzisi lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Garcia ss | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
| Marder rf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Wong 2b | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |
| Hambright 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Macdonald 1b | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Altobelli 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Bennett rf | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
| Packard dh | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Freitas c | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Hart pr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Johnson DH | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Pulfer 2b | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | Kitamura 3b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Karraker c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Montplaisir lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Raulinaitis cf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Totals | 33 | 2 | 7 | 2 | Totals | 35 | 5 | 13 | 4 |
| Oregon | 000 | 100 | 100 | — | 2 | 7 | 0 | |||
| Hawaii | 001 | 001 | 30x | — | 5 | 13 | 0 |
LOB—Oregon 8; Hawaii 9. 2B—Garcia 2, Almadova, Bennett, Kitamura, Pulfer. HR—Freitas. HBP—Freitas, Hart. SF—Freitas. SB—Marder, Raulinaitis. CS—Johnson.
| Oregon | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| McGough | 5 1/3 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Keudell | 1/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fleckenstein (L, 0-1) | 2/3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Boer | 1 2/3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Hawaii | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Slaats | 4 1/3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Capaul (W, 2-0) | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Linsky (S, 3) | 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
WP—Flickenstein. HBP—by McGough (Freitas). by Capaul (Hart). BK—McGough. Umpires—Joe Burlson (Plate); Scott Higgins (First); Bill Speck (Third). T—3:14.
No. 25 Oregon 3, Hawaii 0
Game 2
| Oregon | AB | R | H | BI | Hawaii | AB | R | H | BI | |
| Serna ss | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Roquemore cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Pulfer 2b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Garcia ss | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Marder rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Wong 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hambright 1b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Macdonald 1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Wagner dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Bennett rf | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Raulinaitis pr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Johnson dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Altobelli 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Montplaisir lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Gavin 3b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Kitamura 3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Rodriguez c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Fujii c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mendenhall lf/rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Van Doornum ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Peterson 1b | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Piazzisi pr/lf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Hart cf | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 22 | 3 | 6 | 2 | Totals | 23 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Oregon | 000 | 300 | 0 | — | 3 | 6 | 0 | |||
| Hawaii | 000 | 000 | 0 | — | 0 | 2 | 0 |
DP—Hawaii 1. LOB—Oregon 8; Hawaii 6. 2B—Peterson, Bennett. HBP—Serna, Marder, Mendenhall, Garcia, Kitamura. SH—Serna, Hambright, Hart. CS—Pulfer.
| Oregon | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Thornton (W, 1-0) | 5 2/3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Gagnier (S, 1) | 1 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Hawaii | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Spangler (L, 0-2) | 3 2/3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Little | 2 1/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Moore | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
WP—Spangler. HBP—by Spangler (Mendenhall). by Spangler (Serna), by Little (Merder), by Thornton (Garcia), by Gagnier (Kitamura).
Umpires—Scott Higgins (Plate); Bill Speck (First); Joe Burlson (Third).
T—2:22. A—1,024.
