Monday, May 17, 1999

UH rained out,
but parade isn’t

The 'Bows' final game is cancelled,
but they had already clinched
a spot in the WAC Tournament

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

The precipitation that caused the cancellation of last night's final regular-season Western Athletic Conference baseball game with New Mexico did not dampen Hawaii's weekend party.

The Rainbows made sure of that Saturday night when they rode the pitching of Dusty Bergman and a clutch three-run double by Michael Dartt to a 4-2 victory over the New Mexico Lobos.

"I told the kids, 'You've got to believe in yourself. You can't be worrying about what's outside that you can not control. This is one thing you can control and I want to do it tonight'," UH head coach Les Murakami said before Saturday's game.

Murakami didn't want a WAC tournament berth to hinge on last night's game, Senior Night, a night of distractions. He got his wish and was more pleased the 'Bows didn't back into postseason play.

Saturday's win clinched the WAC tournament berth, ending six seasons of near misses indelibly marked by more defeats than wins down the stretch.

The Rainbows reversed that trend this season by winning seven of their last eight WAC games, including five of six on the road.

"I think the wake-up call was against Rice," said UH assistant coach Carl Furutani. "We felt we could play with them and we didn't get it done here. On the road, the guys stepped up and did the job. They learned how to handle adversity and they brought that knowledge home."

UH head coach Les Murakami cites the depth the 1999 team has as the reason the UH season continues in Fresno, Calif., starting Wednesday against Texas Christian. He also will say lack of depth compounded by injuries is one reason postseason play has eluded UH the past few seasons.

Another reason is the difficulty all programs at Manoa experience in getting junior college transfers into school and eligible to compete.

Murakami is quick to acknowledge everyone loves a winner, but disputes some of the criticism heaped on the program.

"They never look at the lineup and the people who got hurt and the reason why certain things happen and why teams cannot win at times because people are hurt. And they expect you to go with your second lineup. We were very, very fortunate this year that our second-line guys rose to the occasion," Murakami said.

"A lot of people don't realize that, and it's unfortunate they don't because a lot of the people that always are critical and things like that, never played sports.

"We lost three starting pitchers this year. I told you at one time we lost all our depth. At one time I didn't know where to turn because we had no depth. We lost our infield depth. But, we had kids who could do the job unlike other years.

"Like last year in the outfield when we had (Neal) Honma and (Darren) Blakely, but when (Greg) Millichap went down in left field, we didn't have anyone."

Yes, the past six seasons were frustrating for Murakami. At times, UH's admission policies fueled the frustration.

"It's mind-boggling to me that Rice, which is supposed to be a strong academic school, can reload with five or six junior college kids every year and we have such a difficult time getting JC kids in. What are we, the Harvard of the West? Must be, right?

"We get some. They can get in school, but they can't get enough transferable credits (to be eligible to play).

"If we have a kid who wants to come and they say he's lacking seven credits, why would he go to summer school when he can go anywhere else and be eligible? So, you lose him."

When Fresno State lost to Nevada-Las Vegas earlier yesterday, New Mexico qualified for the tournament. Last night's game had no effect on the WAC standings or tournament seedings.

"I would have hated for either team to get someone hurt," Murakami said. "You want to be at full strength for the tournament.

WAC

			Conference	  		Overall
Team 			W	L	 Pct.	 GB	 W	L	Pct.
xy-Rice 		25	 5	 .833	 --	 48	11	.814
x-Texas Christian 	19	10	 .655	 5	 29	24	.547
x-San Jose St. 		16	11	 .593	 7	 28	24	.538
x-Nevada-Las Vegas 	16	14	 .533	 9	 27	32	.458
x-Hawaii 		15	14	 .517	 9	 36	18	.667
x-New Mexico 		14	15	 .483	 10	 29	28	.509
Fresno St. 		14	16	 .467	 11	 33	30	.524
San Diego St. 		14	16	 .467	 11	 27	32	.458
Brigham Young 		12	17	 .414	 12	 26	31	.456
Utah  			8	20	 .286	 16	 22	30	.423
Air Force 		5	20	 .200	 17	 19	32	.373

x-Qualified for WAC tournament.

y-Clinched regular-season title.

New Mexico & San Jose St. played one tie game.

Saturday's results

Hawaii 4, New Mexico 2

Rice 23, Air Force 4

Brigham Young 16, Utah 13

Fresno State 6, Nevada-Las Vegas 3

San Jose State 8, San Diego State 5

Yesterday's results

New Mexico at Hawaii, canceled, rain

Nevada-Las Vegas 6, Fresno State 3

Rice 14, Air Force 3

End regular season