[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
Mike Trapasso's vision for his Hawaii baseball program is to someday be able to compete with the elite teams in the nation. Hawaii pitcher lives up
to Trapasso’s expectationsBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comWhen and if he gets there, he will remember a pitcher he inherited who could already do it.
Trapasso made Bryan Lee his No. 1 starter before the season, and Lee has not disappointed him. After beating nationally ranked Florida State on opening day, Lee kept his Rainbows within striking distance of No. 4 Rice last night at Les Murakami Stadium.
"He battled, gave us another solid outing," Trapasso said. "He deserved a better fate than he got. He's got the toughest job (as the No. 1 starter) and we can count on him to give us six or seven solid innings."
He didn't get the win, but he did all that Trapasso asks. He gave the Rainbows a chance to win. He does it nearly every time out. But he does it best when his opponent is among the best.
"For some reason I was really up for this game, more than usual," Lee said. "It is all mental with me. My two best outings came against Florida State and these guys."
A look at Lee's numbers don't suggest anything special -- he has a 4.42 earned run average and hitters have a .316 average against him after last night -- but he has only been blown out once, when UC Irvine beat him 8-1 in his previous start.
And Lee does it by practicing what Trapasso, who was the pitching coach at Georgia Tech before taking over Hawaii, preaches.
Trapasso only wants his pitchers to keep the ball down and throw strikes. Lee got ahead on 19 of the 30 batters he faced last night and threw the ball in the strike zone 57 of the 93 times he made an offering. He walked only three Owls, two of them after the fifth inning.
He was far from perfect, giving up four runs in 6 1/3 innings, but had his team within two runs throughout the game. He could easily have won had his team not stranded 10 runners in the first five innings.
When Lee did give up his runs, it was a result of going away from what his coaches tell him to do. He gave up a two-run home run in the first by leaving the ball up to Rice's most dangerous hitter, Vincent Sinisi, who greeted Shawn Yamashita with another homer when Yamashita took over for Lee.
The other two runs he gave up came on singles after he left the ball up.
"All the hits that ended up hurting me were mistakes," Lee said. "When I get balls up I get hurt."
UH Athletics
