DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
UH's Brent Cook was forced out at second by Western Illinois' Ryan Schmidgall on the front end of a double play.
The Hawaii Rainbows won their first Rainbow Easter Baseball Tournament championship since 1999 with a 13-2 victory over Western Illinois in front of 1,767 fans at Murakami Stadium last night. UH wins Easter
tourney with rompHawaii takes the title with
a 13-2 rout of Western IllinoisBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comThe Rainbows' triumph gave them their 12th title since the tournament was first held in 1975.
Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso called on members of future starting rotations to handle the mound duties. Freshman right-hander Keahi Rawlins pitched the first six innings. He allowed six hits, walked three and struck out seven to earn his first victory as a Rainbow.
Freshman right-hander Rich Olsen took over in the seventh. Senior right-hander Bryan Lee closed things out in the ninth with three strikeouts, although he gave up three hits and a run.
"Keahi and Rich threw well. It was good to get Keahi extended to 97 pitches. The most pleasant part of the day was seeing Rich throw. He was dominant," said Trapasso.
Rawlins said he wasn't nervous the first couple of innings, but nor was he himself.
"Later I felt more comfortable, got into some situations and was able to get out of them with the help of my defense, which did the job tonight," said Rawlins.
Every Rainbow starter had at least one hit except Brent Cook, who walked three times. Andrew Sansaver led the 14-hit parade with two doubles and a single, while Brian Finegan and Matt Inouye, the tournament Most Outstanding Player, each had two hits.
Inouye, who has seen spot duty this year, said "I'm surprised (at the award). I'm just trying to play a role and if I get a chance I want to take advantage of it. Lately I've been working on hitting the curve. I hit a couple in this tournament and they have given me more fastballs."
The freshman catcheroutfielder was 6-for-15 with three doubles and three RBIs in the tourney.
The Rainbows (17-14) knocked out Western Illinois starter James Kalinowski in the first inning with a barrage of doubles.
Finegan and Sansaver doubled to the right- and left-field alleys to start the inning, with Finegan scoring.
A walk to Cook and Josh Green's double-play ground ball left Sansaver at third with two outs. Brian Bock was safe at first on a fielding error by WIU second baseman Ryan Cougill as Sansaver scored.
Inouye then lined a 3-1 pitch into the left-field corner for an RBI double. WIU coach Stan Hyman then brought Jon Adams in from the bullpen. Designated hitter Kevin Gilbride lined the first pitch to center for an RBI single and a 4-0 UH lead.
"To go out and get four runs in the first inning was a key. You take control of the game. Everyone relaxes and we play better relaxed," said Trapasso.
The Leathernecks (10-14) used a single to center by Joe Rooney, Cougill's bunt single and a one-out walk to Tim Casey to load the bases in the second. Rawlins, following a visit from pitching coach Chad Konishi, fanned Nick Simmons and got Eric Martinez to ground into a force out at second to end the inning,
Hawaii scored another run in the second. Isaac Omura walked, moved to second on Finegan's sacrifice bunt, continued to third when Adams overthrew first and scored when Cook grounded out.
The Rainbows loaded the bases in the fourth on a hit batter, walk and Green's single. UH took a 7-0 lead as runners were forced home when Inouye walked on a full count and Gilbride was hit by a pitch.
A walk to Finegan and singles by Sansaver and Green resulted in another run and a 8-0 'Bow lead in the fifth.
The Leathernecks finally got on board when Rooney doubled deep to left-center field and scored on wild pitches by Rawlins either side of a walk to Cougill.
Sansaver's second RBI double of the night highlighted the four-hit, three-run Hawaii sixth.
Lewis-Clark State 4, Air Force 3: The Warriors (24-5) scored two runs in the first inning and managed to stay just ahead of the Falcons (10-17) to win the consolation title.
Kapaa High School product Micah Furtado started the inning with a single and Paul Gallegos walked. Both runners moved up on Marc Kaiser's sacrifice bunt. Furtado scored on a balk and Emerson Frostad singled Gallegos home. Frostad singled Gallegos home again in the fifth inning with what proved to be the winning run as Lewis-Clark State took a 4-1 lead.
Josh Phifer's two-run homer to left in the sixth inning cut the Air Force deficit to one run, but Nic Puckett came out of the LCSC bullpen and limited the Falcons to one hit over the final 3 2/3 innings.
Hawaii 13, WIU 2
WIU (10-14) AB R H BI Hawaii (17-14) AB R H BI Buchen lf 4 0 0 0 Finegan ss 3 3 2 1 Shelby ph 1 1 1 0 Russell ph/ss 1 0 0 0 Schmidgall ss 4 0 1 0 Sansaver 1b 5 2 3 2 Shore ph 1 0 1 1 Cook lf 2 1 0 1 Schultz cf 4 0 1 0 Wightman rf 1 0 0 0 Rooney 1b 4 1 3 0 Green rf 6 0 2 1 Cougill 2b 3 0 1 0 Bock c 4 1 1 0 Knopp 2b 1 0 0 0 Guillen cf 1 0 1 0 Milliken dh/3b 1 0 0 0 Inouye cf/c 5 2 2 2 Stambough ph/3b 1 0 0 0 Gilbride dh 3 2 1 2 Casey c 3 0 1 0 Magana 3b 4 1 1 0 Corpus c 0 0 0 0 Omura 2b 3 1 1 3 Simmons 3b/p 2 0 0 0 Bertulis ph 1 0 0 0 Koenman ph 1 0 0 0 Martinez rf 3 0 0 0 Harwood ph 1 0 0 0 Total 37 2 9 1 Total 38 13 14 12
WIU 000 001 001 -- 2 9 3 Hawaii 410 213 20x -- 13 14 2 E--Cougill; Knopp; Adams; Omura; Olsen.
DP--WIU 2; Hawaii 2.
LOB--WIU 11; Hawaii 14.
2B--Shelby; Schmidgall; Rooney; Casey; Finegan; Sansaver 2; Inouye.
SH--Finegan.
SF--Omura
SB--Bock.
WIU IP H R ER BB SO Kalinowski (L, 0-3) 0.2 3 4 1 1 0 Adams 3.0 3 3 2 4 4 Powell 0.2 1 1 1 1 0 Simmons 0.2 1 0 0 0 0 Benson 0.2 3 3 3 0 0 Whitson 0.1 1 1 1 2 0 Prater 2.0 2 1 1 1 2 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Rawlins (W, 1-2) 6.0 6 1 1 3 7 Olsen 2.0 0 0 0 0 4 Lee 1.0 3 1 1 0 3 WP-- Whitson 2; Kalniowski; Adams 2.
HBP--by Adams (Sansaver); by Powell (Gilbride).
Umpires--HP:Jim LeBeau, 1B: Gary Montalbo, 3B: Keoki Torres.
T--3:10.
A--2,941.
LCSC 4, Air Force 3
Air Force 000 102 000 -- 3 5 0 Lewis-Clark State 200 110 00x -- 4 6 2 Jason Brown, Josh Zumbrun (6) and Joe Peterson, Daniel Petro (6); Tim Petke, Nic Puckett (6) and Gavin Concepcion. W--Petke (4-0). L--Brown (0-1). Sv-Puckett (1).
Leading hitters--AFA: Josh Phifer, 3-4, 2b, HR, 2 RBIs. LCSC: Paul Gallegos, 2-3; Emerson Frostad, 2-3.
All-Tournament Team
Rainbow Easter Tournament
Most Outstanding Pitcher -- Marc Kaiser, Lewis-Clark State
Most Outstanding Player -- Matt Inouye, Hawaii
C: Tim Casey, W. Illinois. 1B: Andrew Sansaver, Hawaii. 2B: Isaac Omura, Hawaii. 3B: Jose Rodriguez, Lewis-Clark St. SS: Brian Finegan, Hawaii. OF: Tony Shockley, Air Force; Paul Gallegos, Lewis-Clark St.; Josh Phifer, Air Force. DH: Joe Rooney, W. Illinois. P: Ricky Bauer, Hawaii; Paul Vignola, Air Force.
UH Athletics
