[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Andrew Sansaver slid into third base during the eighth inning as Hawawii-Hilo's third baseman Daniels Rhodes took a dive yesterday.
Rainbows sweep
another seriesHawaii uses a nine-run second
inning to defeat Hawaii-Hilo for
the third straight game
The Hawaii baseball team swept its second consecutive three-game series by taking control yesterday with a nine-run second inning against Hawaii-Hilo.
The Rainbows extended their winning streak to seven straight games with the 14-5 victory before 923 fans at Murakami Stadium. The win streak ties the longest in the coach Mike Trapasso era, a feat accomplished by the 2003 team.
UHH (4-14) right-hander Brian Ebbs retired the Rainbows in order in the first inning but ran into big trouble in the second, when 13 UH batters went to bat. Hawaii managed just three hits, but took advantage of six walks, a hit batter and three errors to score nine runs.
A single by Josh Green, a dropped fly ball and an intentional pass to Andrew Sansaver loaded the bases. Nate Thurber walked on a 3-2 pitch to force home the first run. Greg Kish then lined a one-strike pitch into right-center field for a two-run single.
"Basically I was thinking I wanted to see the ball as long as I can and hit the ball hard," said Kish, a transfer from Oklahoma.
"What I've been practicing with guys (pitchers) who don't have strong velocity is to hit the ball the other way. I didn't want to do too much with it, just put a nice swing on it. It comes up better for me that way. I get in trouble if I try to jerk the ball."
The other key hit was Matt Inouye's three-run double to center field after Ebbs walked Robbie Wilder and Brian Finegan to reload the bases.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii's Matthew Inouye chased down a runaway ball during the eighth inning yesterday as umpire Don Greman watched.
Inouye leads the 'Bows (8-5) with 16 RBIs in 13 games and raised his team-leading batting average to .439 with a 2-for-4 afternoon.
With the Vulcan pitchers issuing 11 walks and hitting four batters, the Rainbows only needed eight hits to pile up the 14 runs.
Clary Carlsen went the first six innings for UH. Every one of the 18 outs recorded while he was on the mound was either a strikeout (four), an infield pop (one) or a ground ball (13).
"They tell us to keep the ball down low and I've struggled with that the past couple of weeks," said Carlsen. "I worked all week on not flying open and keeping the ball down. I'm still not all there with everything, but I'll get used to this whole starting thing eventually."
Trapasso thought the senior right-hander, who delivered 52 strikes and 35 balls, had his best outing of the season.
"Clary had good stuff today compared to the other days. His arm angle was more consistent and the action on his sinker was good," Trapasso said.
Rich Olsen, a sophomore right-hander, relieved Carlsen to start the seventh inning, struggled with his control and left after walking the first two Vulcans in the eighth.
"Rich is trying to be someone he is not ... a power pitcher," Trapasso said. "We need to do some work in the bullpen with him. He is a pitcher, but hasn't pitched the last two outings. He has thrown."
Freshman right-hander Darrell Fisherbaugh came on to strike out five of the six batters he faced.
"Darrell's slider was unhittable. It was good to see him come in and finish the game like he did," Trapasso said. "He picked Rich up and went to a level that is going to allow him to be pretty good. It's just a matter of him maturing."
UH second baseman Schafer Magana made two outstanding defensive plays. He flagged down a bouncer up the middle behind second base and threw David Chu out in the second. In the third, Magana made a diving stop of Kaliko Oligo's hard smash toward center and just did get the speedy leadoff batter with an accurate throw to Sansaver at first.
In the sixth, Finegan grabbed Johnny Dudoit's high-hopper deep in the hole at short and gunned out UHH's top hitter by half a step at first.
The Rainbow outfielders recorded just one putout all day.
UH opens a three-game series with the San Francisco Dons on Friday night.
Hawaii 14, UH Hilo 5
E--Tamura; Taiarol; Rhodes; Kahoali'i. DP--UHH 1; Hawai'i 1. LOB--UHH 8, Hawaii 10. 2B--Tamura; Dudoit; Taiarol; Cabral; Inouye. HBP--Inouye; Kahoali'i; Kish; Magana. SB--Wilder 2, Inouye 2, Sansaver.
UHH AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Oligo cf 5 0 0 0 Wilder cf 3 2 1 2 Tamura rf 5 1 2 0 Finegan ss 4 1 1 2 Dudoit 3b/1b 3 1 1 1 Hanzawa ph/ss 0 0 0 1 Henderson dh 4 0 1 1 Inouye c 4 1 2 3 Chu lf 2 1 0 0 Bell-Irving ph/c 1 0 0 0 Caviglia 1b 3 0 0 0 Green rf 4 1 1 0 Ball pr/2b 0 0 0 0 Kahoali'i 3b 4 2 0 0 Taiarol c 4 1 1 0 Sansaver 1b 2 3 1 0 Cabral ss 4 0 1 1 Thurber dh 3 2 1 0 Rhodes 2b/3b 3 1 0 0 Kish lf 4 2 1 2 Magana 2b 4 0 0 0 Totals 33 5 6 3 Totals 33 14 8 10 UH Hilo (4-14) 000 210 110 -- 5 6 4 Hawaii (8-5) 090 020 12x -- 14 8 1
WP--Ebbs; Fisherbaugh. HBP--by Daugherty (Inouye); by Daugherty (Kish); by Usui (Kahoali'i); by Usui (Magana). BK--Ebbs; Daugherty. PB--Taiarol, Inouye 2. Umpires--Don Greman (home), Mike Evans (first), Gary Montalbo (third). T--3:00. A--923.
UHH IP H R ER BB SO Ebbs (L, 0-2) 1.1 3 8 6 4 0 Daugherty 5.0 5 4 3 5 2 Dwyer 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 Usui 1.0 0 2 0 2 0 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Carlsen (W, 2-2) 6.0 5 3 3 3 5 Olsen 1.0 1 2 0 3 0 Fisherbaugh 2.0 0 0 0 1 5
