Sunday, April 22, 2001
[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
Rainbows break HOUSTON >> Chad Giannetti turned in a brilliant pitching performance for the University of Hawaii yesterday to spark the Rainbows to their first-ever series win over the Rice Owls.
Texas-sized drought
UH takes 1st series from Rice
in Houston behind
Giannetti gemStaff and wire reports
Staked to a 6-0 first-inning lead, the 6-foot-2 right-hander pitched perfect ball for five innings and settled for a two-hitter in the 7-3 Western Athletic Conference victory.
The Owls' second hit, a two-run homer by A.J. Porfirio in the bottom of the ninth inning, ended Giannetti's longest stint on the mound this season. Bryan Lee came out of the bullpen to shut down Rice.
"Talk about competing, talk about making his pitches, talk about keeping them at bay, Chad did a great job," Hawaii acting head coach Carl Furutani said.
Giannetti realized he had a perfect game going around the fourth inning, but he wasn't about to change anything.
"I just stuck with my game plan. I was getting ahead with off speed pitches all day," he said. "Brian (Bock) called good pitches and mixed it up pretty well. I only shook him off once all day."
The Rainbows (20-23, 10-17 WAC) came out swinging against senior right-hander Jeff Nichols, who no-hit UH the first time the 'Bows visited Houston in 1998.
Arthur Guillen started the big first inning by slapping a double inside the third-base bag, then beat the tag at third on Matt Purtell's sacrifice bunt. Guillen scored and Purtell took second on Nichols' balk.
Nichols failed to cover first on Gregg Omori's infield single. The Owls weren't able to turn the double play on Patrick Scalabrini's grounder as Purtell scored. A Danny Kimura double to left moved Scalabrini to third, from where he scored on Brian Bock's single.
The Owls again failed to turn a double play as Kimura scored on Kevin Gilbride's grounder. Tim Montgomery singled to right. Lane Nogawa singled Gilbride home and Guillen greeted reliever Phillip Tribe with his second hit of the inning to score Montgomery.
Giannetti retired several Owls on fly balls early in the game with Guillen in center and Montgomery in right catching up to drives that could easily have been hits. Purtell speared a Jesse Roman line drive at his shoe tops in the fifth to keep the perfect game going.
"Art is going and getting balls, some balls you wouldn't believe," said Furutani. "He pretty much shut down any big rallies or hope Rice had."
The 'Bows finished the trip with a season-best 3-3 road record and their best mark in Texas since Rice and Texas Christian joined the league.
"I felt that we were going to do well on this trip. I felt we would go 5-1. After what happened at TCU, I felt we could still make a good road trip out of this," Furutani said.
UH hosts a three-game non-conference series against Oregon State starting Friday night.
Hawaii 7, Rice 3
HAWAII AB R H BI RICE AB R H BI Guillen cf 5 1 2 1 Davis lf 3 1 0 1 Purtell ss 4 1 1 0 Porfirio cf 4 1 1 2 Omori dh 5 0 2 0 Arnold ss 3 0 0 0 Scalabrini 3b 5 1 1 1 Roman 1b 4 0 0 0 Kimura 1b 5 1 2 0 Brown 2b 4 0 1 0 Bock c 5 0 3 1 Lorsbach rf 4 0 0 0 Gilbride lf 3 1 0 1 Jacobson 2 1 0 0 Jackson pr/lf 1 1 0 0 Bormaster 3b 0 0 0 0 Montgomery rf 5 1 1 0 Cunningham ph 1 0 0 0 Nogawa 2b 5 0 2 2 Ghutzman c 2 0 0 0 Giannetti p 0 0 0 0 Bryan 3b 2 0 0 0 Lee p 0 0 0 0 Nichols p 0 0 0 0 Tribe p 0 0 0 0 Barzila p 0 0 0 0 Totals 43 7 14 6 Totals 39 3 2 3
Hawaii 600 000 100 -- 7 14 1 Rice 000 001 002 -- 3 2 2 E--Kimura; Ghutzman; Bryan. DP--Hawaii 1 (Purtell, Nogawa, Kimura). LOB--Hawaii 11, Rice 3. 2B--Guillen; Scalabrini; Kimura. HR--Porfirio. SB--Guillen; Purtell; Jackson. SH--Purtell.
HAWAII IP H R ER BB SO Giannetti (W, 3-4) 8-2/3 2 3 3 2 1 Lee 1/3 0 0 0 1 0 RICE IP H R ER BB SO Nichols (L, 3-3) 2/3 6 6 6 0 0 Tribe 7 7 1 1 1 5 Barzilla 1-1/3 1 0 0 0 2 WP--Gianetti. Umpires--Dale Luker (first), Bob Charmo (third), Randy Parker (plate).
T--2:22. A--2841.
UH Athletics
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