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Monday, February 28, 2000
Rainbows earn
their first series
sweep of season
A 2-1 win yesterday over
By Al Chase
Cal State Saramento is Hawaii's
fourth in a row
Star-BulletinThe University of Hawaii baseball team has discovered what it is like to win a tough, close game.
The Rainbows' eighth-inning rally produced a 3-2 win Saturday.
They reinforced the experience by doing it again yesterday.
The Rainbows earned their first series sweep of the season with a 2-1 win over the Cal State Sacramento Hornets before a crowd of 1,112 at Rainbow Stadium.
Hawaii (8-10) owns a four-game winning streak and begin Western Athletic Conference play against Rice Saturday at noon.
In the first 16 games of the season, Hawaii either won easily or lost convincingly. A comeback win had eluded the Rainbows.
"It will probably help us. It's the close ones that count. The easy ones are easy to win," UH head coach Les Murakami said.
"I thought the last two games were great games, well played, great defensive games."
It was a great defensive play in yesterday's game that left everyone confused and resulted in a 24-minute discussion between the three umpires and coaches from both sides before a decision was rendered.
And that play was just one of several strange happenings that took place in broad daylight.
The Hornets (3-10) ended a scoreless pitching duel in the top of the seventh on a two-out, RBI single by Rick Gonzalez.
Patrick's Scalabrini's third hit, a single to deep short, scored Kenn Wakakuwa in the bottom of the inning to tie the score at 1-1.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Lane Nogawa drew a one-out walk and took third on a single to right by Scooter Martines.
That was all for Cal State Sacramento starter Pat Edwards, who had pitched very effectively.
Right-hander Michael Penbera threw two pitches, got two outs, but Nogawa scored the go-ahead run on a bizarre, disputed play.
Penbera's first pitch to Rainbow designated hitter Danny Kimura was a ball. Kimura drilled the next one to deep left that Gonzalez caught over his shoulder three steps from the wall in front of the basically all-white GTE sign.
All Nogawa had to do was tag up and come home. He did.
All any umpire had to do was make the 'out' signal indicating the ball had been caught, but no one made the call.
Pinch runner Sean Takamori rounded second base, started to head back to first, then saw Murakami waving him to third.
Gonzalez threw to shortstop Jesse Krebs, who relayed to third baseman Mike Butler in time to tag Takamori out.
Butler then ran to tag first base since Takamori never went back to tag up after the catch.
The question demanding an answer was did Nogawa's run count?
The lengthy conference started on the field and ended up in the field-level auxiliary press box. The umpires eventually ruled there was an inning-ending double play and the run counted.
"They said you can appeal one time, but cannot appeal two times. You can't tag Takamori out, then appeal at first," said Murakami.
CSS head coach John Smith contended the run didn't count since it scored on a continuous defensive play in which two outs were made
The Hornets also lost a run when center fielder Derek Honma threw out Jeff Proud at home plate in the eighth inning.
And, in the fifth, Jesse Krebs tripled with one out. But, no balk was called on Rainbow starter Rich Snider when he clipped the rubber with a cleat on his front foot and double stepped in making the pitch. That cost CSS a run.
Rainbows 2, Hornets 1
SACRAMENTO AB R H BI HAWAII AB R H B1 Krebs ss 4 0 1 0 Honma cf 4 0 0 0 Butler 3b 5 0 2 0 Nogawa ss 3 1 0 0 Gonzales lf 5 0 3 1 Martines lf 3 0 1 0 Jackson pr 0 0 0 0 Takamori pr-rf 0 0 0 0 Martinez 5 0 1 0 Kimura dh 3 0 0 1 Brown rf 4 0 0 0 Wakakuwa c 3 1 2 0 Clark rf 0 0 0 0 Aloy 1b 2 0 0 0 McFarland cf 4 0 2 0 Baker rf-lf 3 0 0 0 Proud c 3 0 3 0 Scalabrini 3b 3 0 3 1 Maghan 1b 4 0 0 0 Pico 2b 2 0 0 0 Williams 2b 2 0 0 0 Morales pr-2b 1 1 1 0 Totals 37 1 13 1 Totals 26 2 6 2
Cal State Sacramento 000 000 100 - 1 13 0 Hawaii 000 000 11x - 2 6 0 E-None.
DP-CSS 1 (Gonzales-Krebs-Butler). LOB-CSS 12, UH 5.
3B-Krebs (1). SB-Jackson (6). CS-McFarland (1). S-Krebs (12), Aloy (1), Pico (1).
Santa Clara
IP H R ER BB SO Edwards (L, 2-2) 7-1/3 6 2 2 2 4 Penbera 2/3 0 0 0 0 0
Hawaii
IP H R ER BB SO Snider 7 10 1 1 2 3 Garrick (W, 1-0) 1-2/3 3 0 0 0 2 Yamashita (S, 1) 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 Umpires-Torres (plate), Tomaszewski (first), Pittman (third). T-2:35. A-1,112.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
