[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
Owls blank Rainbows
HOUSTON >> Philip Humber exceeded Friday's effort by teammate Jeff Niemann against Hawaii by throwing a four-hit, 3-0 shutout vs. the Rainbows last night, much to the delight of the 3,162 fans at Reckling Park.
Humber broke a 28-year-old Rice single-game record with 17 strikeouts that included whiffing the side in order in the first and eighth innings. Rice pitchers have fanned 32 Rainbows in 18 innings and UH has gone 14 innings without scoring.
The defending national champion Owls (16-5) used three unearned runs to improve to 5-0 in the Western Athletic Conference standings with the victory, the 14th consecutive time they have defeated Hawaii (14-9, 0-2).
"Humber was as close to unhittable as anyone we have faced in three years," said UH coach Mike Trapasso. "You can't go deep in counts against a pitcher like that and you have to execute. The sad thing is we pitched well enough to win. We are closing the gap, but close does not count. If anyone is happy with being close, then this is not the place to be. We won't be happy until we're over that hump."
The Owls took advantage of Creighton Kahoali'i's throwing error to score an unearned run in the first inning after Paul Janish doubled to right.
Kahoali'i, filling in at third base for Rocky Russo, who was nursing a bruised left forearm after being hit by a Niemann fastball Friday night, threw Matt Ueckert's grounder past Andrew Sansaver at first, allowing Janish to take third. He then scored on Austin Davis' sacrifice fly to left.
Jaziel Mendoza started the UH second with a single to right and took second on Kahoali'i's sacrifice bunt, but Humber needed just seven pitches to strike out Sansaver and Nate Thurber.
Rice threatened in the third when Adam Hale led off with a single and Bryant hit the next batter, Chris Kolkhorst, with a pitch. But, on a ball in the dirt, Matt Inouye threw Hale out at third and Bryant retired the next two batters on ground balls.
The Rainbows had the same opportunity in the top of the fourth inning when Brian Finegan singled to right and Inouye walked on a full count with no one out. But Humber fanned Mendoza, who failed to get a sacrifice bunt down.
Then, with Kahoali'i at the plate, Rice catcher Adam Rodgers threw Finegan out on the front end of what turned out to be a double-steal attempt in the scorebook, although Kahoali'i was trying to execute the hit-and-run play. Humber then hit Kahoali'i with a 3-2 pitch, but fanned Sansaver on three pitches to end the threat.
"I don't know if we have any real opportunities after that. If you we are going to beat a team like Rice with their pitching, we have to execute and play defense and we didn't do that," Trapasso said. "We didn't execute twice in that inning. We're not going to get three or four hits in one inning against pitching like that."
The positive in this game was the pitching of junior right-hander Stephen Wright who gave UH its second consecutive complete-game performance.
"I challenged Stephen to keep that darn fastball down and he did after Janish hit that double in the first inning," said Trapasso. "It should have been 0-0 after nine innings, but we shot ourselves in the foot three times."
Wright allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out seven. It was his longest outing as a Rainbow.
Notes: Hawaii tries to salvage the final game of the series today (9 a.m. on KKEA, 1420-AM) with Clary Carlsen (3-3) on the mound. ... The 17 UH strikeouts ties a team record set May 1998 at San Diego State.
WAC standings
Yesterday
Conference All games W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Rice 5 0 1.000 -- 16 5 .762 Louisiana Tech 1 1 500 2 1/2 10 15 .400 Nevada 0 0 --- 2 1/2 10 12 .455 Fresno State 0 0 -- 2 1/2 12 15 .444 San Jose State 1 4 .200 4 11 11 .500 Hawaii 0 2 .000 3 1/2 14 9 .609
Rice 3, Hawaii 0
San Jose State 10, Louisiana Tech 2
Lewis-Clark State 13, Nevada 9
Cal State Fullerton 15, Fresno State 5
Today
Hawaii at Rice, 9 a.m. Hawaii time
Louisiana Tech at San Jose State
Lewis-Clark State at Nevada
Cal State Fullerton at Fresno State
Rice 3, Hawaii 0
E--Finegan (5), Kahoali'i 2 (12), Bryant (1). DP--Hawaii 1. LOB--Hawaii 6, Rice 8. 2B--Janish (7). HPB--Kahoali'i, Kolkhorst. SH--Kahoali'i (1), Ueckert (1). CS--Finegan (2).
Hawaii AB R H BI Rice AB R H BI Wilder cf 4 0 0 0 Kolkhorst cf 2 2 0 0 Finegan ss 4 0 1 0 Janish ss 4 1 2 0 Inouye c 3 0 0 0 Ueckert 1b 3 0 1 2 Mendoza lf 4 0 1 0 Davis lf 3 0 0 1 Kahoali'i 3b 2 0 0 0 Morris 3b 3 0 0 0 Sansaver 1b 3 0 0 0 Pendleton rf 4 0 2 0 Thurber dh 3 0 0 0 Rodgers c 4 0 1 0 Kish rf 3 0 2 0 Rodriguez 2b 4 0 0 0 Magana 2b 3 0 0 0 Hale dh 3 0 1 0 Totals 29 0 4 0 Totals 30 3 7 3 Hawaii 000 000 000 -- 0 4 4 Rice 100 010 10x -- 3 7 0
HPB--by Bryant (Kolkhorst); by Humber (Kahoali'i). Umpires--Danny Mascorro (home), Ken Eldridge (first), Jim Garman (third). T--2:16. A--3,162.
Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Bryant (L, 2-2) 8.0 7 3 0 2 7 Rice IP H R ER BB SO Humber (W, 4-1) 9.0 4 0 0 2 17