[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
|
The Hawaii Rainbows battled to dig themselves out of a 5-0 hole, but fell short in their final game at Murakami Stadium last night before 1,709 fans. UH hits bottom in home finale
By Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comThe Louisiana Tech Bulldogs rode that early lead to an 8-6 Western Athletic Conference victory to take the series, two games to one.
The Bulldogs teed off on Ricky Bauer in the fourth inning after the freshman right-hander had retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced.
Wade Robinson grounded a two-strike pitch into right field to start the outburst, then Bauer's one-strike pitch plunked Cullen Simmons in the back. Kyle Humphreys ripped the first pitch he saw into left-center field for a two-run double.
After John Brandon sacrificed Humphreys to third, Bauer struck out Nick Cauley swinging for the second out. Michael Hall hit a sharp one-hopper back to Bauer, who had the ball ricochet off his glove toward the third base line for an infield single that scored Humphreys.
Dan Preaus doubled on the first pitch to right-center field scoring Hall. Bauer hit Bart Dugdale with a one-ball pitch. When Brandon Haygood lined an RBI single to center on the first pitch for a 5-0 lead, that ended Bauer's stint on the mound.
"Ricky had good command and location over the first three innings. It all started when he threw a breaking ball to the two-hole hitter (Robinson) on the two-strike pitch," said UH pitching coach Chad Konishi. "That's a bad pitch to a guy with slow bat speed."
The Rainbows threatened to have a big inning of their own in the bottom of the fourth, but settled for two runs.
Lane Nogawa walked, Brent Cook singled to right and Gregg Omori walked to give UH a bases-loaded, no-out start to the inning. However, Scooter Martines bounced back to the mound and Bulldog starter Casey Blalock started a 1-2-3 double play. But Derek Honma tripled off the center-field wall to drive in Cook and Omori.
Hawaii (16-34 overall, 5-19 WAC) picked up another run in the fifth with some help from the Bulldogs.
With one out, Julian Russell singled to center. He continued to second when Brandon misplayed the ball in center field, and took third on a wild pitch. After Blalock hit Brian Bock with a pitch, Russell scored on Nogawa's fielder's choice blooper in front of Haygood at second base.
Louisiana Tech (21-31, 7-20) scored two unearned runs in the eighth off Will Quaglieri to up the lead to 7-3. Humphreys reached second on a throwing error by third baseman Danny Mocny. Brandon sacrificed Humphreys to third and he scored on Hall's two-out infield single to deep short. Preaus hit a fly ball to right-center that Cook had glance off his glove for a three-base error as Hall scored.
"Will comes in and does a good job," Konishi said. "If we could play catch, we win the game."
The 'Bows' 34 defeats ties the school record set in 1997.
Louisiana Tech 8, Hawaii 6
La Tech AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Haygood, 2b 5 0 1 1 Nogawa, 2b 4 0 0 1 Robinson, ss 5 1 2 0 Cook, cf 5 1 1 0 Simmons, rf 2 1 0 0 Omori, 1b 3 2 1 1 Sabatini, rf 2 1 1 0 Martines, dh 3 1 0 0 Humphreys, 1b 5 2 2 3 Honma, lf 4 1 2 2 Brandon, cf 3 0 1 0 Mocny, 3b 3 0 0 1 Cauley, dh 4 0 0 0 Montgomery, rf 4 0 1 0 Hall, 3b 4 2 2 2 Russell, ss 4 1 1 0 Preaus, lf 4 1 1 1 Bock, c 3 0 1 0 Dugdale, c 3 0 0 0 Totals 33 6 7 5 Totals 37 8 10 7
Louisiana Tech 000 500 021 -- 8 10 1 Hawaii 000 210 030 -- 6 7 2 E -- Brandon, Cook, Mocny. DP -- LTU 1. LOB -- LTU 6; UH 5. 2B -- Sabatini, Humphreys, Preaus, Honma, Bock. 3B -- Honma. HR -- Omori. HBP -- Simmons, Dugdale, Martines, Bock. SH -- Brandon 2. SF -- Mocny.
Louisiana Tech IP H R ER BB SO Blalock (W, 8-7) 7.0 5 3 3 2 8 Brewster 2.0 2 3 2 0 2 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Bauer (L, 1-7) 3.2 6 5 5 0 3 Quaglieri 4.1 2 2 0 0 6 Le Ducq 1.0 2 1 1 0 2 WP -- Blalock. BK -- Blalock. HBP -- by Bauer (Simmons), by Bauer (Dugdale), by Blalock (Bock), by Brewster (Martines). PB -- Dugdale. Umpires -- Ray Belfiore (plate), Bob Franceschiello (first), Jim LeBeau (third). T -- 2:29. A -- 1,709.
WAC standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Rice 21 2 .913 -- 40 10 .800 San Jose St. 18 8 .692 4 1/2 41 14 .745 Fresno St. 15 8 .652 5 1/2 28 24 .538 Nevada 7 16 .304 14 1/2 21 28 .429 LaTech 7 20 .259 15 1/2 21 31 .404 Hawaii 5 19 .208 18 16 34 .320 Yesterday
San Jose St. 5, Rice 0
Fresno State 5, Nevada 1
Fresno State 8, Nevada 5
Louisiana Tech 8, Hawaii 6Today
Fresno St. at Nevada
San Jose St. at Rice
UH Athletics