Thursday, March 29, 2001
Rainbows Back in the not too distant past, a Wichita State and Hawaii baseball matchup had big national implications.
rebound to knock
off Shockers
Coleman outduels Keiter for a
4-2 win in Easter Tourney gameBy Dave Reardon
Star-BulletinThat wasn't the case last night at Rainbow Stadium, as the Shockers are spending some rare time out of the top 25, and the Rainbows have struggled for several years now.
But the game they played last night was one worthy of college baseball's elite, with UH coming out on top, 4-2, in a crisply played 2 hours and 24 minutes. Hawaii, behind righthanded starter Jeff Coleman's second consecutive superb effort, improved to 13-17 and 1-1 in the Rainbow Easter Tournament. Wichita State fell to 16-10 and 2-1.
Don't tell veteran WSU coach Gene Stephenson it was a good game, though. He spent a solid 20 minutes after the loss talking to his team. Stephenson was unhappy with his team's lack of assertiveness at the plate.
"He (Coleman) threw strike one and then he threw strike two while we stood there and watched it all night,'' Stephenson said. "We had our opportunities, got the bases loaded, but we didn't do it.''
Coleman (3-4), who shut out San Jose State last Friday, extended his scoreless streak to 16 innings before being touched for two runs in the eighth last night. For the game, Coleman allowed four hits, all singles, and Bryan Lee finished up with a hitless ninth for his fourth save.
"It was pretty much the same as pitching against San Jose State,'' Coleman said. "Go hard inside and then a curve or slider away. The key was I could spot the fastball inside.
"I got in a little more trouble tonight, but it worked out."
Freshman shortstop Cortland Wilson hit his first home run as a Rainbow last night, depositing a 370-foot shot over the left-center field fence to start the fifth. It turned out to be a big run, as it gave UH a 3-0 lead.
Wilson said to expect more power from him.
"I hit quite a few (homers) off decent pitchers in high school,'' said Wilson, who had two of Hawaii's seven hits last night. "I definitely feel my swing is coming around."
Lane Nogawa also sparked UH's offense with two hits.
WSU's Ben Keiter was a hard-luck loser, striking out a career-high 12 batters in seven innings. It was also the most times Hawaii struck out in a game against one pitcher this year.
Hawaii acting head coach Carl Furutani said his pitching rotation is set for the rest of the tournament's scheduled games:
Aaron Pribble against Centenary today at 3 p.m., William Quaglieri against Kita-Kyushu tonight at 6:30, Wakon Childers goes against Lewis-Clark State tomorrow, and Sean Yamashita against Hawaii Pacific on Saturday.
"That will make seven starters in seven games," Furutani said.
For Sunday's final game, it would probably be Chad Giannetti, who beat Centenary on Monday.
In other games yesterday:
Lewis-Clark St. 8, HPU 2:
Kurt Koshelnik rapped three hits and Yoshi Kimura drove in two runs with a single and double to lead the Warriors (27-5, 2-0) past the Sea Warriors (16-14, 0-2).Brendan Ryan and Matt Hellman both added two hits, and starter Nic Puckett (3-0) went 523 innings for the pitching win.
UCSB 9, Centenary 7:
Mike Kolbach banged out four hits, including a home run, as the Gauchos (18-7, 2-0) outlasted the Gents (11-20-1, 1-2).Kolbach hit a solo shot to lead off the sixth inning and Dave Molidor hit a bases-empty homer two batters later.
The Gauchos' Jeremy Sugarman (1-1) gave up 11 hits in seven innings, but pitched well enough for the win. Gents' starter Kevin Cassidy (3-3) gave up all nine runs in 5-13 innings.
Centenary 5, Kita-Kyushu 4:
Patrick Rhodes pitched 7-23 innings of shutout relief to lead the Gents to their first tournament victory.Seth Winterer led Centenary with three hits, including two doubles. His second two-bagger, in the seventh inning, drove in Grenda with the eventual winning run.
Takuya Imahayashi keyed a four-run first with a two-run homer, but Kita-Kyushu's (1-2, 1-2) offense sputtered the rest of the way.
Notes:
A bill to rename Rainbow Stadium to Les Murakami Stadium is up for review Friday in a state senate hearing. There will be a joint hearing of the committee on education and the committee on transportation, military affairs and government operations at 1 p.m. in conference room 212 of the Capitol.Murakami, who was going to retire after this, his 31st season as UH head baseball coach, suffered a stroke Nov. 2. Longtime assistant Carl Furutani was named acting head coach and is running the team this season.
Hawaii 4, Wichita State 2
WSU AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Welch ss 5 0 1 0 Purtell cf/2b 3 1 1 0 Hawkins cf 4 0 0 0 Nogawa 2b 3 1 2 1 Burgamy 3b 4 1 1 0 Guillen cf 1 0 0 0 McCarty lf 3 1 0 0 Omori dh 4 0 1 0 Walter rf 1 0 0 0 Scalabrini 3b 3 0 1 1 Wright dh 3 0 0 1 Kimura 1b 4 0 0 0 Owen c 2 0 1 1 Bock c 3 0 0 0 Green 2b 3 0 0 0 Boudon lf 3 0 0 0 Becker ph 1 0 0 0 Montgomer rf 3 0 0 0 Walkup 2b 0 0 0 0 Wilson ss 3 2 2 1 Sorensen 1b 4 0 1 0 Totals 30 2 4 2 Totals 30 4 7 3
Wichita State 000 000 020 -- 2 4 0 Hawaii 101 020 00x -- 4 7 2 E--Purtell, Scalabrini
DP--UH 1. LOB--WSU 9, UH 4.
2B--Nogawa, Scalabrini.
HR--Wilson.
SB--Purtell, Nogawa. CS--Hawkins
SH--Purtell. SF--Owen.
Wichita St. IP H R ER BB SO Keiter (L,3-3) 7.0 7 4 4 0 12 Kerbs 1.0 0 0 0 1 1
Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Coleman (W,3-4) 8.0 4 2 2 4 6 Lee (S,4) 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 HBP--Hawkins (by Coleman); Owen (by Coleman); McCarty (by Coleman).
Umpires--Keoki Torres (plate), Jerry Pittman (first), Guy Ogawa (third).
T--2:24. A--2,733 tickets (1,415 turnstile).
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
