Sacramento defeats
distracted Rainbows
The Sacramento State Hornets played perfect small ball augmented by walks and a shoddy Hawaii defense to defeat the Rainbows 6-3 in a nonconference game at Murakami Stadium last night.
“I get tired of saying it, but we played with no fire, no sense of urgency, no toughness and no competitiveness,” said UH coach Mike Trapasso.
“We got sucked in by the elements and the lights. We saw it as a pain. They saw it as an opportunity. They were ready and they jumped on us. The truth is, it was embarrassing.” The start of the game was delayed for 41 minutes when a fuse blew in the upper campus substation leaving the stadium in the dark.
When play began, Hornets leadoff batter Craig Johnson reached second on a throwing error by UH second baseman Schafer Magana. Hawaii starting pitcher Keahi Rawlins then struck out Brian Blauser. As Jack Arroyo approached the batters box, the light went out again.
This time the delay was one hour and 40 minutes. The lights came back on in time for the game to resume minutes before a 9 p.m. deadline set by Trapasso.
The Hornets (20-19), who put runners in scoring position in the first and second innings but came up empty, took a 2-0 lead in the third. Pedro Santiago’s grounder just inside the first base bag rolled all the way to the wall for a two-run double.
Brian Blauser started the inning with a line single to left and took second when Jack Arroyo walked. Andy Hnilo’s sacrifice bunt pushed the runners into scoring position.
Hawaii (19-12) got one run back in the bottom of the inning. Creighton Kahoali‘i beat out a bunt single up the third base line. Schafer Magana was safe at first on his sacrifice bunt when Hornet starter Marshall Hendon’s throw bounced by first base. Kahoali‘i advanced to third and scored when Brian Finegan grounded into a double play.
Kyle Aure reached first to start the Hornet fourth when UH third baseman Rocky Russo lost his high hopper in the lights and misplayed the ball. Rawlins tried to get Aure at second on Jim Stromback’s sacrifice bunt, but his throw was late. Johnson did sacrifice the runners up a base and Aure scored on Blauser’s groundout for a 3-1 lead.
When Rawlins walked Hnilo on four pitches to start the fifth inning, he was replaced by Guy McDowell who walked Bret LeVier. “I think Keahi deserved a better fate because we did not play well behind him. He didn’t pitch great, but he did a good job,” said Trapasso. “He was at 80 pitches and we weren’t getting anything done offensively. If we were scoring runs and staying in the game, I would have left him in.” Santiago sacrificed the runners up a base and McDowell walked Ronnie Machado to load the bases. Hnilo scored on Aure’s groundout. Stromback, a Moanalua graduate, lined a two-run single off the glove of a leaping Andrew Sansaver to up Sacramento State’s lead to 6-1.
McDowell did settle the game down over the final four innings, holding Sacramento State hitless.
However, the Rainbow batters had little success against Hendon’s offering through five innings. Only one of the three UH hits went to the outfield. Hendon was helped by a second double play in the third inning following Jaziel Mendoza’s one-out single to left. He neither walked or struck out any one and was replaced by Renecke Stelzriede to start the sixth inning.
He did give up a two-run single to Isaac Omura in the ninth, but it was too little, too late.
The teams play again tonight with a 6:35 p.m. start.
Sacramento St. 6, Hawaii 3
Sacramento St. AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Johnson rf 3 0 0 0 Finegan ss 4 1 1 0 Blauser 1b 4 1 1 1 Kish rf 3 1 2 0 Arroyo 2b 4 1 1 0 Inouye cf 4 0 0 0 Hnilo dh 3 1 0 0 Mendoza lf 4 0 1 0 LeVier ss 4 1 0 0 Russo 3b 2 0 0 0 Santiago 3b 4 0 1 2 Omura 2b 2 0 1 2 Machado cf 2 1 0 0 Sansaver 1b 4 0 1 0 Aure c 4 1 0 1 Thurber dh 4 0 0 0 Strombach lf 2 0 1 2 Kahoali‘i c 3 1 1 0 Magana 2b/3b 2 0 1 0 Totals 30 6 4 6 Totals 32 3 8 2
Sacramento St. 002 130 000 — 6 4 1 Hawaii 001 000 001 — 3 8 3
E—Hendon, Russo 2, Magana. DP—Sacramento St. 3. LOB—Sacramento St. 9, Hawaii 4. 2B—Santiago. SH—Johnson, Hnilo, Santiago, Strombach, Magana.
Sacramento St. IP H R ER BB SO Hendon (W, 1-2) 5.0 3 1 0 0 1 Stelzriede (S,3) 4.0 5 2 2 1 4 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Rawlins (L, 1-2) 4.0 3 4 3 4 1 McDowell 5.0 1 2 2 3 5
WP—Stelzriede, Rawlins. HBP—by McDowell (Johnson). Umpires—Don Greman (plate), Keoki Torres (first), Gary Montalbo (third).T—2:36. A—599.
