A night after Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso questioned the passion his players brought to Murakami Stadium, the Rainbows responded by reaching double figures in runs for the first time this season. ’Bows pound Cougars 10-5
By Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comAaron Pribble pitched the first eight innings, matching his career high, and the Rainbows evened the three-game series at one win apiece with a 10-5 victory.
Pribble experienced one tough inning when the Cougars (4-11) scored three runs on four hits in the fourth. The senior left-hander threw 108 pitches with 68 being strikes. That's about a 60-40 ratio. The UH coaches prefer to see more of a 70-30 ratio.
The Rainbows (6-6) built a 7-1 lead after three innings and made it stand up.
The teams conclude the series today at 12:05 p.m.
Trapasso said he doesn't expect the Rainbows to lack passion often, but it will happen with the number of games they play.
"I think their passion was rekindled because they just didn't like their approach Thursday night," said Trapasso.
"We're still trying to find out what makes this team successful. We know we have to start with good defense and we have to put the ball in play to have a chance to win."
The Cougars grabbed a quick lead in the first when Cameron Coughlan popped a bunt single over a charging UH third baseman Brent Cook, stole second and scored on Rob Itai's line single to right.
Gregg Omori walked with two out to start a UH rally in the bottom of the first. Scooter Martines followed with an infield single to third and Cortland Wilson walked to load the bases.
Kevin Gilbride worked the count full, then lined a single to right field that scored Omori and Martines. Wilson advanced to third from where he scored on Lane Nogawa's first-pitch ground single to center.
The Rainbows scored again in the second for a 4-1 lead. Derek Honma singled sharply to center, moved to second on Cook's groundout and scored on Omori's single to right.
Wilson dribbled a single into center field to start a three-run, third inning that increased the UH lead to 7-1.
Gilbride and Nogawa walked, loading the bases. Wilson scored as Bock reached first on a fielder's choice grounder with Nogawa a force out at second. Arthur Guillen lined a single to left, scoring Gilbride, Bock stopping at second.
Jason Garcia replaced BYU starter Ryan Adams and walked Honma, reloading the bases. Cook's sacrifice fly to right scored Bock.
However, BYU bounced back with three runs in the top of the fourth. Consecutive singles with one out by Jake Stubblefield, Dave Jensen and Ranger Wiens produced one run. Wiens stole second and, when the throw bounced off Nogawa's glove toward short right field, Jensen scored and Wiens continued to third. Han Yi, hitting .094 (3-for-32), lined a 2-2 pitch to center scoring Wiens and cutting Hawaii's lead to 7-4.
"Aaron's balls were up and he didn't throw his power change-up. He wasn't aggressive in that inning," said pitching coach Chad Konishi. "We didn't think he would go more than five innings, but, to his credit, he pitched three more innings after the fifth."
After being retired in order in the fourth and fifth innings, the Rainbows took advantage of a leadoff double by Honma, a fielding error by Yi on Cook's bouncer to second and Omori's fielder's choice grounder to make the score 8-4 in the sixth.
The 'Bows knocked Garcia out in the seventh. Gilbride walked and scored on Nogawa's hit-and-run line drive double into the right-field corner. Bock then singled to right on a full count to score Nogawa.
Matt Carson tripled to left-center field to open the BYU eighth and scored on Stubblefield's grounder for the Cougars' fifth run.
Jason Piepmeier pitched the ninth for UH and got three outs compliments of Cook at third base. The junior college transfer threw out Wiens after fielding his hard shot, dove to his left to snag Lars Birkeland's liner inches off the ground and charged Yi's slow roller and threw him out at first.
"That's something we've come to expect from Brent," said Trapasso. "He's so intense, but I think he actually smiled after making the play on the slow roller."
HAWAII 10, BYU 5
BYU (4-11) AB R H BI Hawaii (6-6) AB R H BI Jackson cf 4 0 0 0 Honma lf 4 2 2 0 Coughlan lf 4 1 2 0 Cook 3b 4 0 0 1 Carson rf 4 1 2 0 Omori 1b 3 1 1 2 Itri 3b 3 0 1 1 Martines dh 5 1 1 0 Stubblefield dh 4 1 1 1 Wilson ss 4 2 1 0 Jensen 1b 4 1 1 0 Gilbride rf 3 2 1 2 Wiens ss 4 1 1 1 Nogawa 2b 3 1 2 2 Birkeland c 4 0 0 0 Bock c 4 1 1 2 Yi 2b 4 0 1 1 Guillen cf 4 0 1 1 Totals 35 5 9 4 Totals 34 10 10 10
BYU 100 300 010 -- 5 9 2 Hawaii 313 001 20x -- 10 10 1 E--Yi 2, Bock. DP--BYU none, Hawaii none. LOB--BYU 4, Hawaii 8.
2B--Honma, Nogawa. 3B--Carson. HR--none. SH--none. SF--Cook. SB--Coughlan, Wiens. CS--Carson.
BYU IP H R ER BB SO Adams (L, 0-3) 2.1 7 7 7 4 1 Garcia 3.2 3 3 3 2 3 Fernley 2.0 0 0 0 0 1 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Pribble (W, 2-0) 8.0 9 5 5 1 5 Piepmeier 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 WP--Pribble. S--none. PB--none. HBP--Omori (Fernley). Umpires--John Krason (home), Gary Montalbo (first), Mike Evans (third). T--2:33. A--1,714.
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