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Friday, August 4, 2000

Island Movers get
timely hitting to
pull out the win

---

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

Nothing backs up solid pitching better than key hits, even if they don't come until the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Hawaii Island Movers have missed that timely hit on more than one occasion this summer. They were 11-20 in the Alaska League after an 0-7 start.

Last night, in the first round of the Hawaii International Baseball Championship Tournament, the Movers were down, 5-3, entering the ninth.

Simon Ferrer, hitting .162, doubled with one out and scored on a triple to right by Hawaii-Hilo's Brian Rooke.

After Bryce Uegawachi walked and Kainoa Obrey struck out, Bronson Sardinha, who will be a senior at Kamehameha this fall, bounced a single into right.

Rooke scored the tying run and Uegawachi beat the throw to third from where he scored easily on a single by Kona Sampaio, his third hit of the game.

Lanakila Niles, with four hitless relief innings, was the winning pitcher in the 6-5 triumph.

"I think our guys got some confidence in Alaska after beating a few good teams," said Movers head coach Dave Nakama. "They're starting to believe they could play with those other teams. Our kids really played hard in Alaska and and that's a key for us."

Nakama says his pitching is deep now that Niles and Justin Cayetano, unavailable for the Alaska trip due to summer school, are back.

Cayetano starts tonight's game and Chad Giannetti goes tomorrow.

Giannetti has made seven starts and owns the Movers only two complete games.

"I feel I've gained a lot of confidence this summer," said Giannetti, who wants to battle for a spot in the University of Hawaii starting rotation next spring.

"Chad has pitched well. He's been able to get out of jams which I heard he didn't do before," Nakama said. "He's throwing the change-up on the fastball count which is really huge for him."

Another Rainbow, Bryan Lee, was told by the UH coaches to work on the change-up this summer and get it over for strikes.

"It's been OK," said Lee who has made five starts.

He has been trying to develop his slider, which means keeping it down and throwing it for strikes.

"Bryan needs to work on another pitch besides the fastball. He relies on it a lot, but when he throws it in the right location, he's tough to hit," Nakama said.

"He doesn't let things bother him. He has a good pitcher's demeanor out there."

The top three earned-run averages are in the bullpen, led by Ben Siff. His ERA is 1.52 in 15 appearances and he has three of the Movers' five saves.

Ken Yamaoka,at 3.15, and Dave Mallen, at 3.79, follow Siff.

Nakama's goal at the beginning of the summer was to give each player as much playing time as possible. Ten of his 13 pitchers have thrown between 19; Giannetti has a team-leading 38 innings.

That's the most innings Giannetti has thrown since he was a senior at Punahou two years ago.

Duke Sardinha leads the Movers with a .294 batting average. Rooke is next at .285.

One disappointment, certainly for the Rainbow coaches, is the left knee injury to infielder Akaniao Kozeniewski. He played in just four games before taking the rest of the summer off.