An electrical problem with one of the light poles delayed the start of last night's Hawaii-Rice baseball game at Murakami Stadium by 18 minutes. Owls power past Rainbows
for eighth straight timeRice jumps out to a quick lead
en route to a 9-2 victory over UHBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comThe No. 2 Owls had no such power shortage against the Rainbows, scoring a quick two runs in the first inning en route to a 9-2 victory in front of 2,551 fans. Rice (18-1, 4-0) can sweep its third straight Western Athletic Conference series from Hawaii (13-7, 1-3) with a win in today's 1:05 p.m. contest.
"We're hitting decently," said Rice coach Wayne Graham after his team banged out 13 hits against two Hawaii pitchers. "And we're playing good defense. That and our pitching have been the cornerstones of our game.
"I think Hawaii has a good ball club. We've had a couple of good games and I hope we have another one tomorrow."
In beating the Rainbows for the eighth straight time, the Owls ran their winning streaks to 15 games overall and 11 WAC contests. Rice has won 16 straight road games dating back to last year, and is 7-0 this season.
One of the cardinal rules in baseball is to not to allow the opponent's leadoff batter to get on base. Breaking that rule haunted the Rainbows in Friday's loss to the Owls and it happened again last night with Rice's first batter, Jeff Jorgensen.
Hawaii starter Justin Cayetano (2-2) grabbed Jorgensen's sharp comebacker to the mound to open the first, but Cayetano threw the ball away, sending Jorgensen to second on the error. The speedy junior center fielder, who originally came to Rice on a track scholarship, scored on Chris Kolkhorst's single to left. Kolkhorst put the Owls up 2-0 when scoring on Paul Janish's single to left.
Cayetano got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam when getting Austin Davis to fly out to left and then struck out Craig Stansberry and Jeff Blackinton.
Hawaii battled back with a run in the bottom of the third to pull to 2-1 when freshman designated hitter Matt Inouye scored on Brian Finegan's one-out fielder's choice. That would be the only run the Rainbows could manage off Rice's Philip Humber (5-0), who gave up just five hits while striking out eight and walking three in eight innings.
The Owls took a 3-1 lead in the fourth when Stansberry scored on a caught foul fly by Matt Emerson. For the second night in a row, the Rainbows saw another close game get away by giving up a big inning. Rice struck for four runs in the fifth, combining four hits with two UH errors and two wild pitches to put the game out of reach at 7-1.
"I think you can learn more from your losses than your wins," said Hawaii catcher Brian Bock, who had the team's only extra-base hit with his double in the second. "We can't let a one-run inning snowball into a three- or four-run inning. That's what happened to us in the fifth.
"This is the top team in the nation. You can't give up four runs in an inning to a team like that. We made plenty of mistakes. Rice is beatable, but we have to play our best game. We didn't play anywhere near our best tonight."
Rice's eighth run came in the seventh with two outs. Junior catcher Blackinton, who was born in Honolulu, hit his first career home run some 330 feet over the left-field wall.
The Owls added a run in the eighth as Jorgensen drilled a triple to right then scored easily on Kolkhorst's flyout to left.
Hawaii strung together two consecutive hits for the first time all night in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Andrew Sansaver and Brent Cook both singled to left and a walk to Rocky Russo loaded the bases. But Janish, Rice's All-WAC shortstop, knocked down Josh Green's hard-hit grounder then flipped to Enrique Cruz at second for the force-out to end the inning.
Hawaii threatened again in the ninth, this time breaking through against Rice reliever Lance Pendleton. The Rainbows had the bases loaded with one out when Pendleton was called for a balk, scoring Tim Montgomery from third.
But Hawaii left two runners stranded when Pendleton struck out Finegan and got Sansaver to ground out.
Rainbow reliever Keahi Rawlings had a strong showing over the final 4 2/3 innings, giving up the final two Owl runs. He gave up four hits, walking one with two strikeouts.
Rice 9, Hawaii 2
Rice AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Jorgensen cf 5 2 1 0 Finegan ss 5 0 0 1 Kolkhorst 1f 4 1 3 2 Sansaver 1b 5 0 1 0 Cruz 2b 3 0 1 0 Cook 1f 4 0 2 0 Sinisi 1b 5 1 3 0 Russo 3b 2 0 0 0 Janish ss 5 1 1 1 Green rf 4 0 0 0 Davis rf 5 1 1 1 Bock c 3 0 1 0 Stansberry 3b 5 2 1 0 Jackson ph 1 0 0 0 Blackinton c 3 1 2 1 Montgomery cf 3 1 0 0 Emerson dh 1 0 0 1 Inouye dh 3 1 1 0 Bubela dh 2 0 0 0 Omura 2b 4 0 1 0 Humber p 0 0 0 0 Cayetano p 0 0 0 0 Pendleton p 0 0 0 0 Rawlins p 0 0 0 0 Totals 38 9 13 6 Totals 34 2 6 1
Rice (18-1, 5-0) 200 140 110 -- 9 13 0 Hawaii (13-7, 1-4) 001 000 001 -- 2 6 3 E -- Cook, Russo, Cayetano.
LOB -- Rice 7, Hawaii 9.
2B -- Bock. 3B -- Jorgensen.
HR -- Blackinton.
SB -- Jorgensen, Cruz.
SF -- Kolkhorst, Emerson.
CS -- Kolkhorst 2.
Rice IP H R ER BB SO Humber (W, 5-0) 8 5 1 1 3 8 Pendleton 1 1 1 1 1 2 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Cayetano (L, 2-2) 4 1/3 9 7 4 2 3 Rawlins 4 2/3 4 2 2 1 2 WP -- Cayetano, Rawlins 2. .
Umpires -- HP: Steven Mattingly, 1b: Don Greman, 3b: Mike Gilmore.
T -- 2:55.
A -- 3,426.
UH Athletics
