Wednesday, March 24, 1999
Rainbows’ win
over Wildcats
bittersweet
UH head baseball coach
By Al Chase
Les Murakami was happy with
the 9-5 victory but disappointed
with his pitching staff
Star-BulletinHawaii's Rainbows won their game in the 24th Rainbow Easter Baseball tournament last night, but there was enough disappointment, frustration and embarrassment to explain a defeat.
Randon Ho was making his first start since straining his left latissimus dorsi muscle 10 days ago against San Jose State. He lasted two innings and left disappointed.
Northwestern tagged Ian Jones for three runs in the third, the most he has surrendered in an inning this season, and he was embarrassed.
Matt Wheeler has been hitting the ball hard with nothing to show, which is frustrating, but getting hits off bloopers and slow rollers.
UH head coach Les Murakami said he was happy with the 9-5 win over the Wildcats, but disappointed in his pitchers who were behind in the count much of the evening.
Still, the Rainbows find themselves tied for first place at 2-0 in the tournament along with tonight's opponent, Nittaidai of Japan, and Hawaii Pacific.
Ho said he felt no pain, but, like most athletes coming off an injury, he was aware of it.
"The majority of it was in my head. I think I favored it too much, most definitely in the first inning," the junior left-hander said.
He was behind in the count on five of six batters and Northwestern scored on booming doubles by J.P. Williamson and Joe Hietpas.
Ho decided to block out the injury in the second inning and was ahead in the count on three of four batters, but behind on Kris Musselman, who singled.
"After the second, it began to tighten up," Ho said. "I tried to see if I could work through it, but I started to feel really uncomfortable. Every game is important, but I'd rather be here for the WAC."
Jones, who pitched 6° innings of solid relief against Fresno State last Saturday, replaced Ho and promptly gave up four consecutive hits and three runs as the Wildcats pulled to within one, 5-4.
What Jones did have going for him was the double play. His teammates turned one behind him in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
"My body felt well, but I wasn't getting ahead. They had a couple of dinkers but they were bad pitches. It was great to have the defense working," Jones said.
"Some of it may be a little mechanical problem. Dumb me, I haven't been working the bullpen. When you throw a lot you tend to forget some of the little things you need to do. It caught up with me today."
The sophomore right-hander wasn't able to get ahead with his curve. It was up and his slider wasn't working. He finally told catcher Lars Hansen to quit calling those pitches and went with his fast ball.
"I felt comfortable with the fastball and just tried to hit Lars' glove," Jones said.
The 'Bows (19-10 overall) extended their lead to 7-5 in the fourth when Jamie Aloy singled and came home on Tracy Nakano's first-pitch, line drive triple into the right-field corner. Lane Nogawa, who had two more hits, singled Nakano home.
Sophomore right-hander Gavin Garrick pitched two inings of three-hit ball.
Junior right-hander Wakon Childers worked the ninth, inducing Pat Thompson to hit into a game-ending double play, UH's fifth of the game. It stranded Musselman at third, who had opened the inning with a triple to right-center field on a 3-0 count.
"Northwestern had 12 hits and four walks. I'm not saying they can't hit, but half of those hits came because we were pitching from behind all night long. We were lucky," Murakami said. "This Northwestern team will get better and better as this tournament goes along.
"We won, but you have to look down the line. Hey, we're halfway through the season already. If we cannot pitch ahead, then we're going to be in trouble."
Wheeler, who flew out deep to right and hit a sharp grounder to second, got his hits on a 50-footer up the third base line and a flare over first base.
"I've been hitting the ball hard and not getting hits. It's frustrating," said Wheeler, who has tinkered with this batting stance.
"I was lifting my head up and when I was swinging my whole body was coming up. So I start down (crouch) more and try to stay down the whole time. It's been working pretty good in practice. There's nothing more I can do but still hit the ball hard."
Left-hander Troy Yoshimasu starts on the mound for Hawaii tonight.
Hawaii Pacific 8, Hawaii-Hilo 4:The Sea Warriors won their 17th consecutive game overall by taking advantage of five Vulcan errors and getting timely hitting. After HPU scored runs on a fielder's choice and an error, Bryce Uegawachi doubled home another and Matt Roman followed with an RBI triple giving the Sea Warriors a 4-0 lead in the second inning.
HPU scored an unearned run in the third and two more in a three-run sixth. Keola McCullum scattered 10 UHH hits, walked one and fanned four in a complete-game effort to improve to 7-1 for the season.
Nittaidai 4, Fresno State 2: The Eagles scored two runs after two were out in the first and second innings and turned three double plays to hold off the Bulldogs. Shigeo Amano singled in two runs in the second and Daigo Nakamura had three hits for Nittaidai.
Tony Guzman and Jeff Prieto each paired hits for Fresno State which played it first errorless game since arriving in Hawaii.
Leahey Memorial Award: Bunji Shimomura of Kauai, a longtime community leader and sports enthusiast, has been named the 1999 winner of the Chuck Leahey Memorial Award.
The award, named after the late Chuck Leahey, is given annually by Hui Kokua Kinipopo, the UH baseball booster club. Shimomura will be honored before Saturday's UH game.
Shimomura has been active in baseball on Kauai since the late 1950's with the Hanapepe AJA team, Hanapepe Youth Baseball League and as an assistant with the Waimea High School team where he formed the Athletic Booster Club.
He coached Pop Warner football, coordinated building a youth baseball field in Hanapepe and has been instrumental in bringing the Rainbows to the Garden Island three times for games against UHH and HPU.
Standings 24th Annual Easter
Baseball Tournament
Hawaii 2 0 1.000 Hawaii Pacific 2 0 1.000 Nittaidai 2 0 1.000 Fresno State 0 2 1.000 Hawaii-Hilo 0 2 1.000 Northwestern 0 2 1.000Yesterday's resultsHawaii Pacific 8, Hawaii-Hilo 2
Nittaidai 4, Fresno State 2
Hawaii 9, Northwestern 50
Today's games
Fresno State vs. Hawaii Pacific, 11 a.m.
Hawaii-Hilo vs. Northwestern, 2:30 p.m.
Nittaidai vs. Hawaii, 6:37 p.m.
Tomorrow's games
Northwestern vs. Fresno State, 11 a.m.
Hawaii Pacific vs. Nittaidai, 2:30 p.m.
Hawaii-Hilo vs. Hawaii, 6:37 p.m.
Nittaidai 4, Fresno St. 2
Nittaidai 220 000 000--4 9 1 Fresno St. 000 000 200--2 7 0Tokumichi Munemasa, Tomoyuki Konishi (7), Masanobu Tonouchi (7) and Shinji Okada; Zach Minor, Shawn Hannah (8) and Brad Harper. W--Munemasa. L--Minor. S--Tonouchi.Leading hitters--Nitt: Daigo Nakamura, 3-4, 2b; Yoshiaki Takemura, 2-4, 2b; Shinji Umezaki, 3b; Shigeo Amano, 2 RBIs. FSU: Tony Guzman, 2-4; Jeff Prieto, 2-4.
Hawaii 9, Northwestern 5
Northwestern Hawaii AB R H BI AB R H BI Williamson 2b 5 1 1 0 Takamori rf 4 2 2 0 Kurella ss 3 1 1 0 Dartt 2b 4 0 0 2 P.Thmpson 1b 5 1 2 0 Aloy 1b 3 3 2 0 Hietpas c 4 2 3 2 Nakano lf 3 1 2 2 Standring p-dh 2 0 2 1 Honma lf 1 0 0 0 Dainton cf 3 0 0 0 Mitchell cf 4 0 1 1 Robinson 3b 3 0 0 1 Nogawa ss 4 0 2 2 Anderson rf 3 0 0 0 Childers dh-p 4 1 1 0 M.Thmpson ph 1 0 0 0 Hansen c 4 2 2 0 DeRosa rf 0 0 0 0 Wheeler 3b 4 0 2 1 Musselman lf 3 0 3 0E--Robinson, Wheeler. DP--Northwestern 2 (Robinson-Thompson, Williamson-Kurella-P. Thompson), Hawaii 5 (Nakano-Wheeler-Dartt, Wheeler-Dartt-Aloy, Nogawa-Dartt-Aloy 2, Dartt-Nogawa-Aloy). LOB--Northwestern 7, Hawaii 9.2B--Williamson, Hietpas 2, Standring, Takamori, Childers. 3B--Musselman, Nakano. SB--Takamori 2 (16), Aloy (2), Mitchell (4), Hansen (2). CS--Dainton. SH--Kurella, Dartt. SF--Robinson.
Northwestern IP H R ER BB SO Standring (L,2-1) 6.1 14 9 9 4 1 Bos 1.2 0 0 0 1 2 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Ho 2.0 3 1 1 1 1 Jones (W,2-0) 4.0 5 3 3 2 1 Garrick 2.0 3 1 0 0 2 Childers 1.0 1 0 0 1 0WP--Standring, Garrick 2. PB--Hietpas. HBP--Nakano (by Standring), Standring (by Jones).Umpires--Gary Montalbo (plate), Guy Ogawa (first), Keoki Torres (third). A--1,512 (2,626 tickets sold).
Hawaii Pacific 8, Hawaii-Hilo 2
Hawaii Pacific Hawaii-Hilo AB R H BI AB R H BI Roman cf 5 0 1 1 Takahashi cf 3 0 1 1 Clutter 2b 5 0 0 0 Chu cf 0 0 0 0 Anzai 3b 4 1 0 0 Chaves ss 4 0 3 0 Lyons 3b 1 0 0 0 Kaneshiro 1b 0 0 0 0 Gerhardt dh 5 1 1 0 Yap 2b-3b 4 0 0 0 Yangiswa c 3 1 2 0 Wallis dh 4 0 0 0 Peters lf 2 1 1 1 McCracken c 3 0 0 0 Ka.Mcllm 1b 3 2 0 1 Jinbo c 1 0 1 0 Stith rf 4 0 0 0 Yee 1b 2 0 0 0 Uegwchi ss 3 2 2 2 Yates ph-1b 1 0 0 0 Lynch rf 2 0 0 0 Park rf 2 0 0 1 Rayl 3b 3 2 3 0 Snchez pr-2b 1 0 0 0 Miura lf 3 0 1 1 Loque ph 1 0 0 0 Totals 35 8 7 5 Totals 34 2 10 2 Hawaii Pacific 041 003 000--8 7 1 Hawaii-Hilo 001 010 000--2 10 5E--Stith, Chaves, Yap, McCracken, Lynch, Rayl. DP--Hawaii Pacific 5, Hawaii-Hilo 2.2B--Gerhardt, Uegawachi, Rayl 2. 3B--Roman, Chaves. SB--Roman, Anzai. CS--Takahashi.
Hawaii Pacific IP H R ER BB SO Ke.McCallum (W,7-1) 9.0 10 2 2 1 4 Hawaii-Hilo IP H R ER BB SO Allosada (L,0-5) 6.0 7 8 5 1 5 Agustin 2.0 0 0 0 2 1 Kruse 1.0 0 0 0 0 0HBP--Takahashi (by Ke. McCallum), Peters (by Allosada), Ka. McCallum (by Allosada).Umpires--Ben Ormita (plate), Frank Tomaszewski (first), Jim LeBeau (third). A--186.
