Friday, April 2, 1999
UNLV makes
’Bows look foolish
in 12-3 loss
Sloppy play in the field and
By Al Chase
bad decisions at the plate help
UH give away a key
conference gameStar-Bulletin
Hawaii certainly looked like it was playing a Western Athletic Conference opponent for much of last night's 12-3 loss to Nevada-Las Vegas at Rainbow Stadium. First there was a 3-0 UH lead after two innings that was followed by 12 unanswered UNLVruns.
Second, six of those Rebel runs were unearned as three of their scoring innings started with an error in the Hawaii infield.
Third, there was the throw from the outfield that bounced aimlessly through the infield as UNLV runners took an extra base.
Then there was the failure to move runners up when scoring opportunities materialized, swinging at the first pitch from a reliever never faced before with a rally brewing, only to end in a double play and pitching as if no runners were aboard when they were.
Wait a minute. UNLV is a Western Athletic Conference foe. That is no April Fool's joke. This was the start of an important series for the Rainbows, one in which they want to move closer to the .500 mark in league play and begin a serious run for a WAC tournament berth.
Oops!!
Fortunately, baseball is a game where tomorrow is another day. The teams get a chance to prove that tonight starting at 7:07 p.m.
"This was definitely the worst game we've played this year," said Hawaii head coach Les Murakami. "If you cannot play catch, you cannot win a game. We were cruising 3-0, then ... "
The 'Bows started the game the way they like in the first inning. Sean Takamori blooped a double just over third base, took third on Michael Dartt's sacrifice and scored on Tracy Nakano's grounder to first base.
In the second, Lane Nogawa singled and came home on Lars Hansen's triple. Matt Wheeler got Hansen home with a sacrifice fly .
But, Wheeler gave the run back in the third. Looking like he forgot his dance steps, the UH third baseman booted Clay Belding's one-out grounder for a two-base error, ending a string of seven consecutive batters retired by UH starter Jamie Aloy.
Eliott Sarabia, a defensive standout at shortstop last night and possessing the lowest batting average (.305) among UNLV's starters, singled in Belding with the first of his four hits. A dropped throw at first by Kenn Wakakuwa on a potential double play ball, kept the inning alive. Chris Gillette doubled in another run.
The 3-0 lead was now, 3-2. It disappeared forever in a three-run UNLV fifth as the Rebels (17-20 overall, 6-4 WAC) raked Aloy for three doubles and a triple.
"I told the players what kind of pitcher Aloy was and they didn't make the adjustments the first couple of innings," said Jim Pace, UNLV acting head coach. "He's a very good pitcher and I'm glad we got him out of there.
"I told them to get up on the plate or move up in the box, whatever felt comfortable and don't try to pull Aloy, hit the ball the other way."
Complicating the junior left-hander's outing was a loss of location with his fastball and not having as good location as he wanted with his off-speed stuff.
"You look at their team batting average. They can swing the bat. You make a mistake and they hit it," said Hansen. "It was the same with our relievers. And, we didn't play defense for him (Aloy)."
Quality strikes became fat strikes and the Rebels took advantage.
Throwing errors by Nogawa led to two and three-run innings in the sixth and ninth, but Murakami didn't fault the shortstop.
"A guy that's the third guy at that position, there is a reason for that," said Murakami. "He did tremendous for how many days for us, nine days."
"We just didn't do the little things. Their guy walks (Rah-Miel) Mitchell on four pitches and Takamori swings at the first pitch. At least you have to look at one pitch."
The walk to Mitchell put 'Bows at first and second with one out and trailing, 8-3, in the seventh. Takamori grounded into an inning-ending double play.
"Everybody was out of sync. We'll see what kind of team we have. We'll see if they can come back tonight," Murakami said.
UNLV 12, Hawaii 3
UNLV (17-20, 6-4 WAC) Hawaii (22-12, 4-9 WAC) Adolph lf 4 2 1 3 Takamori rf 3 1 2 0 Gillette 3b 4 1 2 1 Dartt 2b 3 0 0 0 Ludwick cf 4 2 0 0 Nakano lf 3 0 0 1 DeMarco dh 4 1 2 2 Martines dh 4 0 1 0 Hamill c 3 0 1 1 Wakakuwa 1b 3 0 0 0 Betts c 2 0 0 0 Nogawa ss 4 1 1 0 Hertel 1b 5 2 1 1 Hansen c 3 1 1 1 Stoner 2b 3 2 2 1 Honma ph 1 0 1 0 Belding rf 5 1 0 1 Wheeler 1b 2 0 1 1 Sarabia ss 5 1 4 2 Taguchi ph 1 0 0 0 Mitchell cf 2 0 0 0 Tanigawa ph 1 0 0 0 Totals 39 12 13 12 Totals 30 3 7 3 UNLV 002 042 013--12 13 1 Hawaii 120 000 000 --3 7 4E--Betts, Takamori, Nogawa 2, Wheeler. DP--UNLV 2. LOB--UNLV 6, UH 6.2b--Gillette 2, DeMarco, Stoner, Takamori. 3b--Sarabia, Hansen. SB--Ludwick, Sarabia, Takamori 2. SH--Stoner, Dartt. SF--Adolph, Wheeler.
UNLV ip h r er bb so Gidge (W, 6-2) 5 4 3 3 1 1 Olson (S1) 4 3 0 0 2 4 Hawaii ip h r er bb so Aloy (L, 6-5) 4-2/3 6 6 4 1 4 Jones 1-1/3 3 0 0 2 4 Yamashita 2 1 1 1 1 0 Mackenzie 1 3 0 0 2 4HBP--Gillette, DeMarco (by Yamashita), Wakakuwa (by Olson). Umpires--Ramirez, Ogawa, Marple. T--2:50. A--1,466 (2,580 tickets sold).
WAC Standings
Conference Overall Team W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Texas Christ 10 2 .833 -- 18 13 .581 Rice 10 3 .769 1/2 30 7 .811 San Jose St. 7 3 .700 2 16 14 .532 Nevada-LV 6 4 .600 3 17 20 .459 Brigham Young 7 5 .583 3 17 15 .531 San Diego St. 5 7 .417 5 15 18 .455 New Mexico 5 8 .385 5-1/2 16 19 .458 Air Force 2 5 .286 5-1/2 16 17 .485 Hawaii 4 9 .308 6-1/2 22 12 .647 Utah 3 8 .273 6-1/2 15 15 .500 Fresno St. 2 8 .200 7 16 22 .432New Mexico & San Jose State played one tie game.Yesterday's results
Nevada-Las Vegas 12, Hawaii 3
New Mexico 27, Fresno State 26
Rice 11, San Jose State 0
Utah 12, Air Force 1
Hawaii-Hilo at San Diego State, canc., rain
Texas Christian at Brigham Young, ppd., snowToday's games
Nevada-Las Vegas at Hawaii
Fresno State at New Mexico
Hawaii-Hilo at San Diego State (2)
Texas Christian at Brigham Young
Utah at Air Force
Rice at San Jose State
