Tuesday, March 20, 2001
Texas Christian The game was over and Carl Furutani sat there. He talked quietly. Calmly. No anger. No desperation. He knew what needed to be done. His team just needed to do it. And they would, he said quietly. Eventually, they would.
holds off Hawaii
The Horned Frogs complete
sweep of 'Bows with 11-8 winBy Kalani Simpson
Star-Bulletin"Just the little things," he said softly. "They're all correctable. Sometimes it feels like spring training with the mistakes we're making. But we'll get there."
His team had lost again, its 11th in 12 games. This time it was to Texas Christian, last night, 11-8. The University of Hawaii baseball team's tough times continue.
TCU's Ramon Moses had four hits and four RBIs yesterday, including a crucial two -run triple in the seventh inning that turned the tide for good.
The Horned Frogs' hitting hurt the Rainbows.
UH starter Wakon Childers gave up 10 hits in the first four innings. Reliever Matt Le Ducq, who was tagged with the loss, allowed four runs in two and a third. In all, Hawaii pitchers gave up 18 hits.
But UH responded with offense. The Rainbows had 11 hits of their own. They traded leads with TCU. They kept coming.
"You can sense the mood of the dugout the last two innings," acting coach Furutani said. "We felt like we had a chance to win the ballgame.
"That's what you want to see."
"Everyone was up," said catcher Brian Bock, who had two hits. "No one gave up at all."
That's what Furutani is seeing. But then the little things, the correctable things, get in the way.
"We made some crucial errors," Bock said. "We couldn't get it done. We got a couple of big hits, which was great. But we needed to put it together."
In the sixth inning, TCU broke a 5-5 tie with three hits, and none of them made it out of the infield. The Horned Frogs used three bunts in the inning. The Rainbows couldn't stop them.
"All of the bunts were money bunts," Furutani said. "They were basically in no-man's land."
Gregg Omori, who had a two-run homer in the third inning to give UH the lead, said that TCU was simply putting the pressure on the Rainbows.
"They saw that we couldn't handle it and they were taking advantage of it," he said. "We didn't make plays when we needed to make them and as a result we lost the game."
Attitude is not the problem, Furutani said. Effort is not the answer. It is execution that haunted the Rainbows in last night's loss to TCU. They have been working on the correctable stuff, the coach said. But sometimes it all falls apart when the bullets fly.
"That's what comes when you're pressing," Furutani said. "You can talk about it and talk about it. But if you continue to press..."
So calm and quiet and sure, if nothing else Furutani is showing his team how to remain steady through the storm.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
