Monday, March 8, 1999

’Bows hope for
better road trip

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

The consensus among Hawaii's players and coaches was that Saturday's dramatic comeback against Brigham Young should provide a renewed sense of confidence for the Rainbows.

"You've got to go out and have fun and some of the guys haven't had much fun lately," said Lars Hansen. "That six-run inning was big confidence-booster."

The Rainbows overcame their biggest deficit of the season with a six-run, seventh inning to edge the Cougars, 7-6, and take the Western Athletic Conference series, 2-1.

After Friday night's loss, UH head coach Les Murakami said it was imperative to win the rubber game against BYU or the 'Bows would be chasing the rabbit again, a reference to dropping so far behind the conference leaders that catching them would be like greyhound racing dogs catching the mechanical rabbit.

"Now we are right back in the thick of things," Murakami said. "Every field we play on (away from home) the rest of the season is a stadium and won't have the eccentricities TCU's field had."

Jamie Aloy, who had two hits Saturday, said, "Being on the road you feel comfortable, but it's not the same comfort zone you feel at home. We have to overcome that and adjust to any situation."

"It's being mentally strong, overcoming not playing in front of our fans and overcoming the little things," Hansen said.

The euphoria of Saturday's victory doesn't mask the glaring mistakes the 'Bows made in the BYU series. The Rainbows need to eliminate these if they hope to have a positive road trip to San Jose State this weekend.

At least three times, UH pitchers failed to cover first base on ground ball in the hole to the first -base side.

In the first inning Saturday, with runners a first and third an no outs, Sean Takamori tried to tag and score on short fly ball to left field. Murakami couldn't believe he made the attempt. Complicating Takamori's effort was the next batter, Scooter Martines, failing to get on the first-base side of home plate to signal slide or not to Takamori, who came in standing up and was tagged out.

In the seventh, the Cougars pulled a delayed double steal with runners at the corners. UH reliever Wakon Childer never checked the runner coming down the line from third, who was a prime candidate to get caught in a rundown.

One Rainbow who started having fun again was Corey Miller. He broke a two-week hitting slump with a 3-for-4 day in the finale.

"Deciding to give up switch hitting gave me a lot more confidence and that's what hitting is all about," Miller said.

WAC

		Conference			Overall	
		W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L	Pct.	
Rice		3	0	1.000	12	20	3	.870	
San Diego St.	3	0	1.000	12	13	9	.591
Nevada-LV	3	0	1.000	12	9	12	.429
San Jose St.	3	0	1.000	12	11	9	.550	
Texas Christian	5	1	.833	--	11	8	.579	
Brigham Young	3	3	.500	2	8	12	.400	
Hawaii		2	4	.333	3	15	6	.714	
Fresno St.	1	5	.167	4	8	13	.381	
New Mexico	1	5	.167	4	7	14	.333
Utah		0	3	.000	3-1/2	10	10	.500	
Air Force	0	3	.000	3-1/2	9	12	.429

Yesterday's results
Nevada-Las Vegas 15, Air Force 3
San Diego State 9, Utah 2
San Jose State 15, New Mexico 1
Texas Christian 14, Fresno State 8