Thursday, January 31, 2002
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Trapasso’s ’Bows The new era of Rainbow baseball began the same way the old one ended, with a dramatic ninth-inning rally that produced a 3-2, opening-game victory over Florida State before 2,815 fans at Murakami Stadium.
open with a victory
UH rallies in dramatic fashion
in the ninth inning to beat
No. 2 Florida StateBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comDerek Honma's high fly to center field negated the Seminoles' strategy of six infielders and easily scored Cortland Wilson from third base with the winning run.
To get to that point, Hawaii took advantage of Scooter Martines being hit by a pitch from Eric Roman with one out. Danny Mocny pinch ran for Martines. Wilson then walked on a full count.
Brian Bock followed with a sharp single up the middle that scored Mocny and sent Wilson to third.
"Coach Trapasso told me to get a pitch I could handle in the strike zone," Bock said. "It was right there, so why wait?"
The UH catcher picked on Roman's first pitch for the run-scoring single.
"Normally we would take a pitch in that situation, but the Florida State staff has better command than most college staffs and their job was to get ahead in the count. They had been doing it all night," Trapasso said.
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With runners at the corners and one out, FSU coach Mike Martin elected to intentionally walk Tim Montgomery to set up a force out at any base and possibly a double play.The first two pitches to Honma were balls, so Martin brought Daniel Davisdon in from the bullpen. Honma had orders not to do anything different.
"We weren't taking any pitches. If we saw something good, we were to drive it," Honma said. "He threw his first pitch right over the plate. I just tried to make contact and get it in the air."
The Seminoles (3-1) scored first with two runs in the fourth inning. Stephen Drew lined Lee's first pitch into center to get things started. After Nick Rogers struck out looking, Tony Richie bounced a single into left field that just skipped by the glove of diving UH third baseman Brent Cook.
Richie Smith worked the count to 3-1 before driving Lee's pitch to the gap in right-center field scoring Drew and sending Richie to third. Bryan Zech's sacrifice fly to left scored Richie.
Florida State starter, right-hander Blair Varnes, cruised through the first five innings. He retired the first 13 Rainbows he faced before walking Cortland Wilson with one out in the fifth. Wilson remained at first base while Brian Bock flied out to right and Tim Montgomery fanned.
Arthur Guillen broke up Varnes' no-hit bid with a two-out, ground single to left in the bottom of the sixth inning. The inning ended when Guillen was thrown out trying to steal second.
Varnes was replaced by left-hander Daniel Hodges to start the seventh inning. He surrendered UH's second hit, a bloop single to right by Martines with two down. But, Wilson ended the inning with a weak grounder back to Hodges.
The Rainbows had a golden opportunity in the bottom of the eighth and managed to score one run to cut their deficit in half.
Bock led off with a line single to left and Montgomery followed with a double into the left-field corner that advanced Bock to third base. Derek Honma's sharp grounder to short scored Bock and moved Montgomery to third with one out.
At this point, FSU coach Mike Martin made another pitching change, bringing in right-hander Eric Roman. He induced Lane Nogawa to ground to third forcing Montgomery to hold. After Guillen was hit by the pitch, Cook sent a drive to deep right that Richie Smith caught on the warning track.
Bryan Lee pitched eight strong innings for the Rainbows. He allowed eight hits, walked one and fanned four.
"I was a little nervous in the bullpen, but after the first pitch, that was it," said Lee.
"He was hitting his spots all night for the most part," said Bock. "He was awesome."
Trapasso even toyed with the idea of sending Lee out for the ninth inning.
"I don't think we expected him to go eight innings and only needs 82-83 pitches. But one thing I've learned is to get a guy out of there when he can feel good about himself. And, Aaron Pribble came in and got us the zeros we needed in the ninth."
The Rainbows ended the 2001 season by scoring seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 9-8 win over Hawaii-Hilo.
Hawaii 3, Florida State 2
Florida State AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Richmond 3b 4 0 0 0 Guillen cf 3 0 1 0 Drew ss 4 1 3 0 Cook 3b 4 0 0 0 Rogers cf 4 0 1 0 Omori 1b 4 0 0 0 Richie c 4 1 1 0 Martines dh 3 0 1 0 Smith rf 3 0 1 1 Moony pr 0 1 0 0 Zech 2b 3 0 1 1 Wilson ss 2 1 0 0 Cheesman dh 4 0 0 0 Bock c 4 1 2 1 Probst 1b 3 0 0 0 Montgmery rf 3 0 1 0 Lynch lf 3 0 2 0 Honma lf 3 0 0 2 Nogawa 2b 3 0 0 0 Totals 32 2 9 2 Totals 29 3 5 3
Florida St. 000 200 000 -- 2 9 0 Hawaii 000 000 012 -- 3 5 1 E--Bock. DP--Hawaii 1 (Montgomery-Nogawa-Omori). LOB--FSU 5, Hawaii 6. 2B--Smith, Montgomery. SB--Zech. SF--Zech, Honma.
Fresno St. IP H R ER BB SO Varnes 6.0 1 0 0 1 2 Hodges 1.1 3 1 1 0 0 Roman (L,0-1) 1.0 1 2 2 2 0 Davidson 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Lee 8.0 8 2 2 1 4 Pribble (W,1-0) 1.0 1 0 0 0 2 HBP--by Roman (Guillen, Martines). Umpires--Mike Evans (plate), John Krason (first), Jim LeBeau (third).
T--2:12. A--3,933.
UH Athletics