[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
Rainbows clinch series
win vs. LaTechUH collects 15 hits in a 9-1 victory
and will go for a sweep today
The Hawaii Rainbows kept pecking away with their 15-hit offense in support of Stephen Bryant's solid pitching effort to win their second consecutive Western Athletic Conference home baseball series.
Hawaii (22-12, 7-4 WAC) sent Louisiana Tech starter Clayton Meyer to the showers after six innings en route to the 8-1 victory watched by 1,396 fans last night at Murakami Stadium.
The Rainbows will try for their first conference series sweep of the season today at 1:05 p.m. with senior right-hander Clary Carlsen (6-3) on the mound.
Bryant picked up his third consecutive win with the six-hit, five-strikeout, 90-pitch performance. Only twice in eight innings did the Bulldogs manage to get their leadoff batter on base against the junior right-hander.
"I definitely felt good tonight. I had a little more velocity on my fastball, and my curve and change were working," said Bryant, who did not walk a batter.
Freshman right-hander Steven Wright pitched a perfect ninth to close out the game.
"There never was a sense of urgency because Steve (Bryant) was in control, but we let them hang around too long," said UH coach Mike Trapasso. "We left 16 on base and had a lot of missed opportunities to break things wide open early. You have to give Meyer some credit because he hung tough."
The 'Bows, who had a pair of hits in each of the first two innings but did not score, pushed across two runs in the third.
Greg Kish ripped an infield single off LaTech third baseman Blake Burns to start the inning and stole second. Matt Inouye walked. Jaziel Mendoza's sacrifice-bunt attempt between the mound and third went for an infield single when Burns and Meyer could not reach agreement on who would field the ball.
Rocky Russo's sacrifice fly to right with the bases loaded scored Kish and sent Inouye to third. Andrew Sansaver's sacrifice bunt up the first-base line scored Inouye for a 2-0 Hawaii lead.
UH doubled the score in the fifth with Russo's one-out double into the right-field corner getting the 'Bows in gear.
Sansaver lined a first-pitch single to center, with Russo stopping at third. Nate Thurber bounced a single through the hole into left, scoring Russo. Sansaver stopped at second, then took third on Creighton Kahoalii's fly ball to left and scored on Isaac Omura's third hit of the game, a single to right.
"I just have my mind straight now. I got away from that expectation bug," said Omura, who has been producing hits consistently in recent games.
"I'm just trying to play my game and not worry about what other people think. It's too easy to fall into a bad state (of mind)."
The Bulldogs (12-28, 3-11) got on the scoreboard in the sixth when Mims Boyce opened the inning with a double to right-center and scored on consecutive groundouts by Brandon Haygood and Jeff Walker.
Hawaii 9, Louisiana Tech 1
La Tech AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Boyce c 3 1 1 0 Finegan ss 3 0 0 0 Dugdale c 1 0 0 0 Kish rf 5 2 3 1 Haygood 2b 3 0 1 0 Inouye cf 3 1 1 0 Walker lf/rf 4 0 1 1 Mendoza lf 5 1 2 2 Spangler 1b 4 0 1 0 Russo 3b 3 2 1 1 Hudson lf 4 0 0 0 Sansaver 1b 4 1 2 2 Alford cf 3 0 1 0 Thurber dh 4 0 2 1 Soper dh 3 0 1 0 Greon ph 1 1 1 0 Burns 3b 3 0 0 0 Kahoali'i c 4 0 0 0 Holik ss 3 0 0 0 Omura 2b 4 1 3 1 Totals 31 1 6 1 Totals 36 9 15 8 La Tech 000 001 000 -- 1 6 1 Hawaii 002 023 11x -- 9 15 0 E--Spangler (8). DP--Hawaii 1. LOB--LaTech 4, Hawaii 16. 2B--Boyce (7), Soper (4), Mendoza (5), Russo (4), Green (5), Omura (3). SH--Finegan (9), Inouye (5), Sansaver (9). SF--Kish (2), Russo (5). SB--Kish (6). CS--Haygood (6).
La Tech IP H R ER BB SO Meyer (L, 4-4) 6.0 13 7 7 2 7 Lamothe 0.0 0 1 1 2 0 Braun 0.1 1 0 0 1 1 Bascle 1.2 1 1 1 0 0 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Bryant (W, 5-2) 8.0 6 1 1 0 5 Wright 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 WP--Meyer 2 (4). HBP--by Bryant (Haygood), by Bascle (Kahoali'i), by Bascle (Finegan), by Bascle (Inouye). Umpires--Don Greman (home), Phil Benson (first), Joe Burleson (third). T--2:53. A--1,396.