The Hawaii baseball team is on a quick weekend trip to the mainland for a three-game Western Athletic Conference series with San Jose State. Rainbows want road
to San Jose to end wellBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comThe Rainbows are hoping to improve their 2002 road record, now 1-9 away from Murakami Stadium, but face a stiff challenge against a solid team, playing in a stadium UH has found little success in.
The Spartans have emerged as the second-best team in the conference and have an excellent chance of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Since the Spartans joined the WAC, the Rainbows have won just one of 16 games played at Municipal Stadium and are 0-9 in their last three visits.
This is the second of three mainland trips this season for the 'Bows, who went 1-5 on the first trip with three of the losses being by one run. If there is a goal, it is to generate more offense by taking advantage of opportunities.
"We just go into each game and try to win and don't worry about who we play," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "The goal is to get ahead and get ahead with the big hit.
"San Jose State plays well at home. It's like playing at Rice, although we've done something against San Jose State we didn't do against Rice, and that's win a game."
In the WAC series with the Spartans at Murakami Stadium, the Rainbows won the opener, but dropped the next two games, then suffered their worst defeat of the season, a 12-0 drubbing in the Rainbow Easter Tournament.
However, the 'Bows won't be thinking revenge or even acting as the spoiler in the Spartans' march to postseason. Those thoughts don't carry much weight with Trapasso.
"I've never been much for the spoiler role, that's copping out," Trapasso said. "It's kind of like the rally cap mentally in the ninth inning -- you should have that mentally from the first inning."
The Rainbows will rely on the starting rotation of right-handers Chris George (5-3, 5.35 earned run average) tomorrow, Sean Yamashita (2-6, 4.92) Saturday and Ricky Bauer (1-5, 5.34) Sunday. George has won five of his last six starts, with the only loss coming at Rice.
Brent Cook continues to lead the UH hitters with a .352 average. Scooter Martines at .310 is the only other Rainbow over .300. Gregg Omori has 30 RBIs, while Cook, Martines and Tim Montgomery all have 21 RBIs.
Notes: Hawaii leads the series 25-22, but the Spartans won three of four games in Honolulu in March. ... Shortstop Cortland Wilson has a partial tear of the rotator cuff muscles in his right shoulder and is done for the season. He will try rehabilitation first to see if surgery can be avoided. ... Outfielder Derek Honma, sidelined with a broken hamate bone in his left hand for two weeks, has been cleared to swing a bat again and is on the trip. ... Cook is battling a groin pull on the right side but says the injury is getting better. He is day-to-day whether he plays in the field or continues as the designated hitter.
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