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Monday, April 3, 2000
Rainbows fall
short by one
Ho hurls UH past Pepperdine
Al Chase
into the Easter Tournament title game,
but Lewis-Clark State has
the final say
Star-BulletinRandon Ho pitched the Rainbows into the championship game, but 13 hours after they took batting practice, their ninth-inning rally fell one run short.
Lewis-Clark State defeated the University of Hawaii, 5-4, in the title game of the 25th GTE Rainbow Easter Baseball Tournament last night at Rainbow Stadium.
It is the third time the Warriors have carried the championship trophy back to Lewiston, Idaho.
Earlier, UH rode the arm of Ho into the final game in a 4-0 win over Pepperdine.
Lewis-Clark State broke a 2-2 tie by scoring three runs in the seventh inning on the way to the championship.
Gil Pierce started the rally by slicing a single to right that Sean Takamori lost in the lights. Kurt Koshelnik's sacrifice bunt went for an infield single. Hawaii reliever Chad Giannetti then walked Woody Cliffords and hit Yoshi Kimura to force in a run.
Bryan Lee replaced Giannetti and Elliot Strankman's sacrifice fly scored the inning's second run. Matt Hellman followed with a single to reload the bases.
On what the Hawaii coaches thought was called strike three, Trevor Brown walked, forcing in another run for a 5-2 LCS lead.
The Rainbows had taken an early 2-1 edge, but were held to three harmless singles from the fourth through the eighth innings by LCS starter Chris Mabeus.
But the Rainbows made it a game in the bottom of the ninth. Rah-Miel Mitchell tripled to left-center field to start the inning, and pinch hitter Shane Chan came through with an RBI single before taking second on a wild throw to first.
With two outs, Darin Baker lined a run-scoring double down the right-field line to make it 5-4. He then stole third for his sixth stolen base of the tournament.
But Mabeus bore down and got Jamie Aloy to fly out to left on a 2-2 pitch to end it.
"He (Mabeus) threw a lot of splitters and we don't see them that much," said Hawaii's Kenn Wakakuwa. "We didn't adjust. There was no reason we shouldn't have hit him."
Mabeus walked one, struck out six and scattered 12 hits. Gavin Garrick started for the Rainbows. He was replaced after a 32-minute rain delay in the top of the fifth.
"The four-pitch, first inning hurt Gavin," said Hawaii pitching coach Carl Furutani. "It didn't allow him to get into a rhythm or the flow of the game."
"I wanted to use Garrick twice in the tournament and I liked what I saw for the most part," UH head coach Les Murakami said. "He just didn't have the real hard slider today. If he had, he would have struck out more batters.
"It was a long day for the kids. Most of them got up at 6 o'clock and I had them down here at 7. I can't fault them. They never gave up and played hard all the way to the end."
Mother Nature created the long day by forcing postponement of Saturday night's Hawaii-Pepperdine game.
That was rescheduled to start yesterday at 8 a.m., but more rain kept the first pitch from being thrown until 1:34 p.m.
In the meantime, tournament officials called off the third-place game because Winthrop had a 5 p.m. flight. It was just the third cancelled game since Rainbow Stadium was built in 1984.
Two more rain delays, totaling 52 minutes, occurred during the championship game.
With 18 Western Athletic Conference games left, this was the last chance for some mini-experiments to take place.
"I think this tournament helped us because it put some things in perspective," Murakami said.
Hawaii 4, Pepperdine 0:
The Rainbows scored four unearned runs in the first inning and Ho made the lead stand with a five-hitter.With two out, the Waves made two costly infield errors and Wakakuwa was hit by a pitch, loading the bases.
Patrick Scalabrini doubled on a 2-0 pitch into the right-field corner, clearing the bases. He scored on Mitchell's line-drive single to center.
Ho allowed just one Pepperdine runner to reach second base.
CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFF GAME
Rainbows 4, Waves 0
PEPPERDINE AB R H BI HAWAII AB R H BI Cliffords 1b 4 0 0 0 Takamori rf 4 0 1 0 Du.Sardinha 3b 4 0 0 0 Baker cf 4 0 0 0 D.Garcia cf 4 0 1 0 Aloy 1b 3 1 0 0 Da.Sardinha c 4 0 2 0 Kimura dh 3 1 0 0 Coronado rf 4 0 0 0 Wakakuwa 2b 2 1 1 0 Falco dh 3 0 0 0 Scalabrini 3b 3 1 1 3 Katz 2b 3 0 1 0 Mitchell lf 3 0 2 1 Ferrer 2b 0 0 0 0 Aoki c 2 0 0 0 T.Garcia ss 3 0 0 0 Pico ss 3 0 0 0 Evans lf 3 0 1 0 Totals 32 0 5 0 Totals 27 4 5 4
Pepperdine 000 000 000 - 0 5 2 Hawaii 400 000 00x - 4 5 1 E-Du. Sardinha (5), Katz (2), Pico (12).
DP-Pepperdine 1 (T. Garcia-Katz-Cliffords), Hawaii 1 (Pico-Wakakuwa-Aloy). LOB-Pepperdine 6, Hawaii 1.
2B-Scalabrini (6), Mitchell (3). CS-Takamori (6), Mitchell 2 (2).
Pepperdine
IP H R ER BB SO Haren (L, 4-3) 6 3 4 0 1 4 Adams 2 2 0 0 0 1
Hawaii
IP H R ER BB SO Ho (W, 5-4) 9 5 0 0 1 6 HBP-Wakakuwa (by Haren).
Umpires-Torres (plate), Greman (first), Montalbo (third). T-1:56.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Warriors 5, Rainbows 4
LEWIS-CLARK ST AB R H BI HAWAII AB R H BI Ellison cf 4 1 0 0 Takamori rf 3 0 1 0 Y.Kimura 2b 3 0 0 1 Martines ph 1 0 0 0 Strankman ss 4 0 0 1 Gilbride rf 1 0 0 0 Hellman lf 5 1 3 0 Baker cf 5 1 2 1 Brown 1b 3 1 2 1 Aloy 1b 4 1 2 0 Diaz dh 5 0 2 0 D.Kimura dh 4 0 2 2 Kline 3b 4 0 1 0 Wakakuwa 2b 4 0 1 0 Pierce c 4 1 3 2 Scalabrini 3b 4 0 1 0 Koshelnik rf 4 1 2 0 Mitchell lf 3 1 1 0 Bock c 4 0 1 0 Nogawa ss 2 0 0 0 Chan ph 1 1 1 1 Totals 36 5 13 5 Totals 36 4 12 4
Lewis-Clark State 010 100 300 - 5 13 1 Hawaii 101 000 002 - 4 12 0 E-Y. Kimura (6).
DP-Lewis-Clark St. 1 (Y. Kimura-Strankman-Brown), Hawaii 3 (Wakakuwa-Nogawa-Aloy 2, Scalabrini-Wakakuwa-Aloy). LOB-Lewis-Clark St. 10, Hawaii 8.
2B-Hellman (5), Baker (3). 3B-Mitchell (3). SB-Baker 3 (8). CS-Takamori (7), Mitchell (3). SF-Strankman (2).
Lewis-Clark State
IP H R ER BB SO Mabeus (W, 7-0) 9 12 4 3 1 6
Hawaii
IP H R ER BB SO Garrick 4-2/3 6 2 2 1 1 Giannetti (L, 0-3) 1-1/3 3 3 3 1 0 Lee 3 4 0 0 1 2 HBP-Brown (by Garrick), Nogawa (by Mabeus), Mitchell (by Mabeus), Kimura (by Giannetti).
Umpires-Tomaszewski (plate), Montalbo (first), Torres (third). T-2:26. A-940.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Most outstanding player: Trevor Brown, Lewis-Clark St.Most outstanding pitcher: Chris Mabeus, Lewis-Clark St.
Team: First base - T. Brown, Lewis-Clark St. Second base - Kenn Wakakuwa, Hawaii. Third base - Jason Colson, Winthrop. Shortstop - Elliott Strankman, Lewis-Clark St. Catcher - Dane Sardinha, Pepperdine. Outfielders - Austin Evans, Pepperdine; Danny Garcia, Pepperdine; Kyle Woods, Lewis-Clark St. Designated hitter - Danny Kimura. Pitchers - Randon Ho, Hawaii; Nic Puckett, Lewis-Clark St.
WAC STANDINGS
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct. Fresno State 8 4 .667 24 8 .750 Hawaii 8 4 .667 20 16 .556 San Jose State 7 4 .636 20 10 .667 Rice 5 8 .385 16 17 .485 Texas Christian 4 6 .400 13 20 .394 Hawaii-Hilo 4 10 .286 13 20 .394
Yesterday's results
San Jose State 4, Hawaii-Hilo 2
Texas Christian 3, Rice 0
Hawaii 11, Winthrop 2
Today's games
San Jose State vs. Hawaii-Hilo at Kona, 1 p.m.
Texas Christian at Rice
Tomorrow's games
Texas Christian at Rice
Fresno State at Santa Clara
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
