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Saturday, January 22, 2000
Gators feast
on ’Bow
UH is off to an 0-2 start as
By Al Chase
Florida jumps right in
with a big first inning
Star-BulletinThe difference between Florida and Hawaii in the season-opening series so far is obvious: Pitching.
The four Florida pitchers have been effective while most of the 10 hurlers UH head coach Les Murakami has used weren't ready to face a Top 25 team.
History repeated for Rainbow starter Rich Snider last night. It repeated before many of the 848 fans had found their seats at Rainbow Stadium.
The fifth batter Snider faced, former junior college batterymate Tony Socarras, picked on a first-pitch change-up and deposited it over the right-field wall for a grand slam.
Boom!! Gators up 4-0. Starter Alex Hart and reliever Mike Smalley then proceeded to silence the UH bats in a 10-1 Florida victory.
Snider's first-inning history is one of struggles.
"It happened again," he said. "I was a little wild and it hurt hitting two batters."
Snider started by hitting Kurt Keene with his first pitch. After Matt Siegel flew out on the first pitch, Jason Dill doubled on the first pitch.
Ryan Shealy was plunked with a 2-2 pitch, loading the bases for Socarras, a 6-foot, 200-pound senior who bats from the left side.
"I threw a change on the first pitch and I guess he was looking for it," said Snider.
The senior right-hander had an easy 10-pitch second inning, striking out two Gators.
But a couple of singles followed by a two-out, two-run single by Pat Osborn on a hanging slider, made the score 6-1.
And, as Murakami put it, the Rainbow offense was "nil."
"Their pitchers just got it done. They hit their spots and made good setup pitches," UH's Jamie Aloy said.
"Their first guy worked backward. He started off with off speed stuff, then the hard stuff. You didn't know what to expect."
Shortstop Patrick Scalabrini, whose error led to two unearned runs in the fifth inning, thought the 'Bows beat themselves.
"We were trying to make up for yesterday (Thursday) and put too much pressure on ourselves. It's gotta change. We'll take care of it."
The Rainbows' run came in the second when Lane Nogawa's line drive to center field skidded by Ryan Raburn for a triple. Nogawa scored on a sharp double to left by Brian Bock, his first collegiate hit.
"Pitching sets the tone and it took us out of it in the first inning," Murakami said.
Of the relievers, left-handers Ryan Yamamoto and Aloy each had one, two, three innings.
Right-hander Gavin Garrick, after getting the Rainbows out of trouble on one pitch in the fifth inning, hit two Gators in the sixth that led to a run.
Asked how he felt on the mound, Garrick simply flashed a thumbs down.
Ian Jones, a junior right-hander, gave up a leadoff double to Rayburn, uncorked a wild pitch, then hung a breaking pitch that Kurt Keene lined to left field for an RBI single.
In the two games, the Gators are hitting .377, the 'Bows .231. Hawaii batters fanned 11 times in each game.
"We're swinging at a lot of bad pitches and our younger guys are having trouble with the breaking pitch," said Murakami.
"Bock and (Chad) Boudon will come around. They have to see this kind of pitching."
Since first playing an all-collegiate schedule in 1975, Hawaii had never lost its first two games of the season until last night.
Redshirt freshman right-hander Chad Giannetti starts for Hawaii in tonight's series finale.
Gators 10, Rainbows 1
FLORIDA AB R H BI HAWAII AB R H B1 Keene lf-1b 3 1 2 1 Baker cf 0 0 0 0 Siegel dh 5 0 0 0 Jackson cf 2 0 1 0 Dill rf 5 2 3 1 Wakakuwa 1b 5 0 0 0 Wood rf 0 0 0 0 Scalabrini ss 4 0 0 0 Shealy 1b 0 1 0 0 Aloy lf 3 0 1 0 Goss rf 4 2 1 0 Kimura 3b 4 0 1 0 Socarras c 5 1 2 4 Nogawa 2b 3 1 1 0 Osborn ss 5 1 2 3 Boudon dh 4 0 0 0 Olson 3b 4 0 2 1 Honma lf 0 0 0 0 Raburn cf 4 1 1 0 Bock c 4 0 1 1 Estrada 2b 3 1 0 0 Gilbride rf 2 0 0 0 Mitchell rf 2 0 0 0 Totals 38 10 13 10 Totals 35 1 5 1 Florida 402 021 010 - 10 16 0 Hawaii 010 000 000 - 1 5 1E-Olson, Scalabrini.DP-Hawaii 1 (Scalabrini-Nogawa-Wakakuwa). LOB-Florida 5, Hawaii 10.
2B-Dill, Raburn, Bock. Kimura, Jackson. 3B-Nogawa. HR-Socarres. SB-Keene, Jackson. CS-Olson.
Florida
IP H R ER BB SO Hart 4 2 1 1 3 7 Smalley (W,1-0) 5 3 0 0 1 4Hawaii
IP H R ER BB SO Snider (L,0-1) 4-2/3 10 8 6 0 4 Garrick 1-1/3 1 1 1 0 0 Yamamoto 1 0 0 0 0 1 Jones 1 2 1 1 0 0 Aloy 1 0 0 0 0 0WP-Smalley, Jones. HBP-Keene and Shealy (by Snider), Estrada and Keene (by Garrick), Nogawa (by Smalley).Umpires-Tomaszewski (plate), Ogawa (first), Montalbo (third).
T-2:57. A-848.
http://www.kaleo.org
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
