|
’Bows finally end The Hawaii Rainbows broke a seven-game losing streak and won their first Western Athletic Conference game of the season with a 5-1 victory over San Jose State last night at Murakami Stadium.
losing streak
By Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comThe Rainbows received solid pitching from starter Chris George and closer Bryan Lee, who combined to hold the Spartans to six hits, all singles.
Hawaii (8-16 overall, 1-3 WAC) collected 13 hits, including three each by Scooter Martines and Derek Honma. Cortland Wilson had two runs batted in.
"We came back (from Hilo) and worked hard, went back to basic fundamentals, hitting drills, defensive drills. We just have to continue to work hard," said Martines. "We had a great game from Chris and Bryan."
George pitched 7 2/3 innings, in which he got 12 ground-ball outs and fanned five.
"Chris stayed within himself, didn't overthrow and was really free and easy all night," said UH coach Mike Trapasso.
George credited his defense and the offense for getting early runs.
"Our whole team was doing pretty good tonight," said George, who throws a fastball, curve, slider and change-up. "It wasn't so much what pitch I threw but the location. Brian Bock called a great game. I had decent command, but got a little fatigued in the eighth inning and my ball came up."
George began to tire in the eighth, falling behind in the count to the first two batters, but recovered enough to record outs. However, he hit Travis Becktel, walked pinch hitter Brad Kilby and gave up a single to left by Gabe Lopez that loaded the bases.
On Hector Zamora's sharp grounder in the hole, Brent Cook made a diving stop but lost control of the ball trying to throw to second and Becktel scored on the error.
Lee replaced George and got Adam Shorsher to ground into a force out on the first pitch, ending the threat. Lee then retired the Spartans in order in the ninth.
"Practice was as usual, although we upped the conditioning and weight training because I thought the kids looked weak in Hilo," Trapasso said.
"We were hard on the kids, but they had better focus. But this is only one game. If we play this way the rest of the weekend, then we can say the hard work paid off. We have to make sure we don't celebrate yet."
The Rainbows opened the scoring in the third inning with two runs on four consecutive singles after two were out.
Lane Nogawa bounced a single through the hole into left and moved to second on Martines' line single to center. Honma hit a high hopper over the pitchers mound he beat out for an infield single, loading the bases. Wilson pounded a 1-1 pitch into the carpet that bounced high over SJSU third baseman Jordan Bergstrom's head into left field scoring Nogawa and Martines.
Hawaii knocked SJSU (17-9, 3-4) starter Jeremy Rogelstad out of the game with another two runs in the fifth inning.
Cook lined a one-strike pitch into the left-field corner to start the inning with a double. Nogawa was hit by a pitch.
Martines bounced a double down the left-field line on a 3-2 pitch, scoring Cook and sending Nogawa to third.
Donald Gemmell relieved Rogelstad and gave up a run-scoring single to Honma that brought Nogawa home, increasing the UH lead to 4-0.
Rogelstad, who entered the game with a 2.06 earned run average and had held opponents to a .181 average in 56 2/3 innings, surrendered 10 hits to the 'Bows in four-plus innings of work.
Note: It was a rough night for UH center fielder Arthur Guillen. In the sixth inning he was hit on the right ear flap of his helmet by a pitch from Gemmell and spent several minutes on the ground recovering. In the eighth, Guillen caught and held on to Markum King's long drive just as he hit the center-field wall snapping his head back against the blue monster.
Hawaii 5, San Jose St. 1
SJSU AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Becktel rf 2 1 0 0 Guillen cf 4 0 2 0 Quintaro cf 3 0 0 0 Cook 3b 4 1 1 0 Lopez 2b 4 0 2 0 Nogawa 2b 3 2 1 0 Zamora dh 4 0 2 1 Martines dh 3 2 3 1 Shorsher c 4 0 0 0 Honma lf 4 0 3 1 Adams ss 3 0 1 0 Wilson ss 3 0 2 2 Baker 1b 3 0 0 0 Omori 1b 4 0 1 0 Guy ph 1 0 0 0 Gilbride rf 4 0 0 0 Bergstrom 3b 4 0 1 0 Bock c 4 0 0 0 Corrick lf 2 0 0 0 Totals 33 5 13 4 King lf/ph 1 0 0 0 Totals 31 1 6 1
SJSU (17-9, 3-4) 000 000 010 -- 1 6 1 Hawaii (8-16, 1-3) 002 020 10x -- 5 13 1 E--Bergstrom, Cook. DP--San Jose St. 1, Hawaii 2. LOB--San Jose St. 7, Hawaii 8. 2B--Cook, Martines 2. SH--None. SF--none. SB--Guillen, Martines. CS--Bergstrom, Guillen, Martines, Wilson.
San Jose St. IP H R ER BB SO Rogelstad (L, 5-3) 4.0 10 4 4 1 1 Gemnell 2.0 1 0 0 1 3 Minister 1.0 2 1 1 0 1 Esposito 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO George (W, 1-2) 7.2 6 1 0 3 5 Lee 1.1 0 0 0 0 1 WP--George. S--Lee (1). PB--none. HBP--none. Umpires--NA. T--NA. A--NA.
WAC standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Rice 3 0 1.000 -- 18 4 .818 Fresno St. 2 1 .667 1 14 12 .538 San Jose St. 3 3 .500 1 1/2 17 8 .680 Nevada 0 0 -- 1 1/2 10 11 .476 Louisiana Tech 1 2 .333 2 13 10 .565 Hawaii 0 3 .000 3 7 16 .304 Yesterday
Hawaii 5, San Jose State 1
Today (All times HST)
San Jose St. at Hawaii, 6:35 p.m.
Tomorrow
San Jose St. at Hawaii, 1:05 p.m.
UH Athletics