[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
UH reaches tourney final
Hawaii earned the top seed in the semifinals of the First Hawaii Title Rainbow Baseball Tournament with clutch hitting in a 6-3 victory over The Citadel Bulldogs last night at Rainbow Stadium.
The Rainbows (12-7, 3-0 tournament) received excellent pitching from Ricky Bauer for seven innings and a gutsy relief performance by Darrell Fisherbaugh after the Bulldogs (4-5, 2-1) had cut the UH lead to one run with a three-run, eighth-inning rally.
The 'Bows send freshman right-hander Steven Wright to the mound when they play Chicago State (0-6, 0-3) at 6:35 tonight at Murakami Stadium. The other semifinal has The Citadel playing Oregon State at 2 p.m.
"Ricky was outstanding. He just ran out of gas because he is coming back on short rest for him," said UH coach Mike Trapasso. "With Ricky, he loses it fast."
Bauer, now 5-1, threw 91 pitches, 56 for strikes and 35 for balls. He whiffed seven Bulldogs and walked one, just his third walk of the season in 42 innings.
The Rainbows opened the scoring in the first inning when Jaziel Mendoza tripled off the center-field wall with two outs to score Robbie Wilder from third. Wilder led off by beating out an infield single over the mound. He took second on Brian Finegan's sacrifice and moved to third when Matt Inouye flew out to right.
Wilder broke an 0-for-15 slump with the hit. However, during that period, the UH leadoff batter still reached base nine times on eight walks and a hit by pitch.
Mendoza, starting in left field for the first time since pulling a hamstring in the Cal State Northridge series, made a spectacular diving catch on a Chris Altman drive to the left-center-field alley in the seventh that prevented a run from scoring.
Isaac Omura started the third inning with a single up the middle. He was sacrificed to second by Wilder and scored for a 2-0 lead on Inouye's two-out double over the bag at third.
Bauer retired 13 consecutive Bulldogs before Altman bounced a single up the middle with one out in the fifth. Matt Matulia sent Altman to second with a two-out single to right and the runners advanced on a balk, but Bauer got Will Coker to ground out on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
The 'Bows took a 4-0 lead in the sixth and this time it was Greg Kish who delivered the big two-out hit.
Mendoza singled to left-center field with one out. Rocky Russo then grounded a hit-and-run single into right sending Mendoza to third. It was the first time a UH batter has hit behind a runner on the move this season.
Nate Thurber walked to load the bases. Kish, was not pleased with his first two at-bats (a double-play ball and pop-up), then lined a 2-1 pitch into left scoring Mendoza and Russo.
"I got beat on curveballs twice. I thought I was on it both times, but got beat," said Kish. "Since he (Bulldog started Griff Beckham) got me with that pitch before, I was looking for it. That's the best way to get it done, with two outs."
Bauer ran into trouble in the eighth when he walked Chris Ard on a full count to start the inning. Matulia singled to right on a 2-0 pitch.
When Bauer's first pitch to Coker was a ball, Trapasso brought Fisherbaugh in from the bullpen.
Fisherbaugh struck out Coker but wild-pitched the runners up a base in the process. Fisherbaugh also fanned Matt Covington, but walked Jon Aughey on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases. Josh Starkley then cleared the bases with a triple to right, cutting the UH lead to 4-3. Fisherbaugh avoided any further damage by fanning Chip Cannon.
"My enthusiasm was too high. I wanted to pitch too much," said Fisherbaugh who admitted to overthrowing. "I had to calm down. Right after that pop fly (the triple), that calmed me down. There was no more room for mistakes."
The freshman right-hander fanned two Bulldogs in the ninth. He now has 20 strikeouts in 14 1/3 innings.
Russo and Sansaver started the bottom of the eighth with back-to-back doubles on one-strike pitches from reliever Evan Burgess to get one run back. Sansaver took third on groundout and scored the 'Bows' sixth run when Omura was safe at first on a throwing error by Aughey, the Bulldog second baseman.
"That's the way to respond to adversity," said Trapasso. "This was by far our best game of the year. We executed (four sacrifice bunts), played good defense (no errors), got great pitching and we hit."
Vince Goo, the Rainbow Wahine basketball coach who retires after this season, will throw out the first pitch tonight.
No. 20 Oregon State 15, Chicago State 3:The Beavers (9-3, 1-2) cruised after sending 13 batters to the plate in the first inning and turning three walks and four hits off CSU starter Ryan Payne and a throwing error by the right-hander into seven runs. The game ended in the seventh due to the 10-run rule.
OSU starter Jonah Nickerson fanned six of the first eight Cougars (0-6, 0-3) he faced. The freshman right-hander allowed three hits in six innings and finished with eight Ks.
Shea McFeely led the Beavers with three hits and four runs batted in. Chris Kunda was 3-for-3 with three RBIs.
Hawaii 6, The Citadel 3
E--Aughey. DP--Citadel 1. LOB--Citadel 3, Hawaii 8. 2B--Inouye, Russo, Sansaver. 3B--Stackley, Mendoza. SH--Wilder, Finegan 2, Sansaver.
CIT AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Aughey 2b 3 1 0 0 Wilder cf 2 1 1 0 Stackley rf 4 0 1 3 Finegan ss 3 0 0 0 Cannon 1b 4 0 0 0 Inouye c 4 0 1 1 Richardson lf 3 0 1 0 Mendoza lf 4 1 2 1 Brown lf 1 0 0 0 Russo 3b 3 2 2 0 Altman dh 4 0 1 0 Sansaver 1b 3 1 2 1 Ard 3b 3 1 0 0 Thurber dh 3 0 0 0 Matulia ss 3 1 2 0 Kish rf 4 0 1 2 Coker c 3 0 0 0 Green rf 0 0 0 0 Weathers cf 1 0 0 0 Omura 2b 4 1 1 0 Covington cf 2 0 0 0 Magana pr/2b 0 0 0 0 Totals 31 3 5 3 Totals 30 6 10 5 CIT (4-5) 000 000 030 -- 3 5 1 Hawaii (12-7) 101 002 02x -- 6 10 0
WP--Fisherbaugh. HBP--by Burgess (Wilder). BK--Bauer. Umpires--Jim LeBeau (home), Mike Evans (first), Keoki Torres (third). T--2:40. A--805.
Citadel IP H R ER BB SO Beckham (L, 0-1) 5.2 8 4 4 2 1 Burgess 2 2 2 1 1 1 Howe 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Bauer (W, 5-1) 7 4 2 2 1 7 Fisherbaugh (S, 1) 2 1 1 1 1 5