[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
FRESNO, Calif. >> The Fresno State Bulldogs broke a tie in the bottom of the eighth inning to present coach Bob Bennett with his 1,300th career victory, 5-3. Bennett gets No. 1,300 as
UH can’t hold leadsFrom staff and wire reports
Hawaii took leads of 1-0 and 3-1, but the Bulldogs managed to tie the score each time. Two runs in the eighth put FSU ahead to stay in the opener of a three-game Western Athletic Conference series at Beiden Field.
Despite that, UH's Chris George and FSU's Ben Fritz were in control for the first seven innings. Fritz retired 16 of the 20 'Bows he faced after UH took the 3-1 lead in the fourth inning.
George ran into trouble in the bottom of the eighth after Scott Beshears singled to right on a full count and was sacrificed to second by Chris Patrick. Casey McGehee, FSU's leading hitter, lined a 2-2 pitch to center, scoring Beshears to give the Bulldogs (30-27, 17-11) a 4-3 lead.
Fritz helped his own cause with a single to right that moved McGehee to third. He scored on Toby Riday-White's sacrifice fly on the first pitch thrown by UH reliever Aaron Pribble.
"It was a good baseball game. Fritz is an outstanding pitcher, might even be the conference pitcher of the year, and he was sharp tonight," said UH coach Mike Trapasso.
"Again, George matched him pitch for pitch. Again, we didn't get the big hit, but we almost did on Derek Honma's line drive in the eighth, but the kid jumped up and caught it. If it goes through, it's in the gap and that's a couple of runs."
The Rainbows (16-38 overall, 5-23 WAC) threatened to break the tie in the top of the eighth on one-out singles by Scooter Martines and Kevin Gilbride. Honma, who had two singles and a double earlier, picked on a one-strike pitch from Fritz, but Patrick made the leaping catch at shortstop to save Fritz. Tim Montgomery then hit a fly to center to end the inning.
Honma's one-out double and Julian Russell's two-out two-bagger brought in UH's first run in the fourth. When McGehee threw wildly past first base on Brian Bock's ground ball, Russell scored from second.
In the fifth, Riday-White opened with a double to left-center field, but George fanned T.J. Boyd and retired Brad Harper on a foul pop that Bock caught right in front of the UH dugout. However, the No. 9 batter for FSU, Joey Myers, lofted a 2-1 pitch over the right-field wall for his fourth home run of the season to tied the score at 3.
"In the inning Chris gave up the double and home run, they were very good pitches, down in the zone right where Bock wanted them, but they just went down and got them," said Trapasso.
Ricky Bauer starts on the mound for Hawaii today.
Fresno St. 5, Hawaii 3
UH (16-38) AB R H BI FSU (30-27) AB R H BI Mocny 3b 5 1 1 0 Lipsey lf 4 0 0 0 Nogawa 2b 5 0 1 0 Beshears 2b 4 1 2 0 Cook cf 3 0 0 1 Patrick ss 3 0 0 0 Martines dh 4 0 1 0 McGehee 3b 4 2 3 1 Gilbride 1b 4 0 1 0 Fritz pdh 4 0 2 0 Honma lf 4 1 3 0 Riday-White rf 1 1 1 2 Montgomery rf 4 0 0 0 Boyd 1b 2 0 0 0 Russell ss 2 1 1 1 Creamer ph 1 0 0 0 Bock c 3 0 0 0 Pierce 1b 1 0 0 0 Boudon ph 1 0 0 0 Harper c 3 0 1 0 Total 35 3 8 2 Myers cf 3 1 1 2 Total 30 5 10 5
Hawaii 100 200 000 -- 3 8 0 Fresno St. 010 020 02x -- 5 10 1 E--McGehee (14). DP--Hawaii 1 (Mocny unassisted). LOB--Hawaii 8, Fresno St. 5. 2B--Honma (7), Russell (8), Beshears (9), Riday-White (9). 3b--Mocny (1). HR--Myers (4). SH--Patrick (3). SB--Nogawa (8), Myers (4). SF--Cook (3), Riday-White 2(4).
Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO George (L, 6-6) 7.1 10 5 5 0 4 Pribble 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 Fresno St. IP H R ER BB SO Fritz (W, 9-5) 8.0 8 3 2 0 8 Edwards (S, 2) 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 HBP--by Fritz (Russell), by George (Riday-White), by Edwards (Russell). Umpires--HP: John Deluca, 1B: Rick Saxton, 3B: Ken Bayne. T -- 2:11. A -- 2,715.
WAC standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Rice 26 2 .929 -- 45 11 .804 San Jose St. 20 9 .690 612 44 15 .746 Fresno St. 17 11 .607 9 30 27 .526 Nevada 10 19 .345 1612 25 31 .446 LaTech 7 21 .250 19 21 35 .375 Hawaii 5 23 .179 21 16 38 .296 Yesterday
Fresno State 5, Hawaii 3
Rice 6, Louisiana Tech 3
San Jose St. 8, Nevada 6Today (All times HST)
Nevada at San Jose St., 11 a.m.
Rice at Louisiana Tech, 8 a.m.
Hawaii at Fresno State, 4:15 p.m.
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