[ RAINBOW BASEBALL ]
Three Rainbow fielders allowed a ball to fall among them yesterday in a 13-1 loss to Rice.
Rice comes to life
The Owls avoid a sweep by
beating the Rainbows 13-1
Rice salvaged the final game of a three-game, Western Athletic Conference series and gained a split of the six conference baseball games with Hawaii yesterday.
The defending national champions broke open a close game with a seven-run, seventh inning en route to a 13-1 victory before a Mother's Day crowd of 1,692 at Murakami Stadium.
"It was looking bad after losing close games Friday and Saturday. We made some mistakes, but Hawaii played well, played tenacious and deserved those wins," said Rice coach Wayne Graham, happy that his starting pitcher produced a solid effort yesterday.
Josh Baker, who lasted just 1 1/3 innings against the Rainbows in Houston on March 21, pitched 6 2/3 innings of three-hit ball yesterday to earn his seventh win in 10 decisions.
"Josh was a little shaky (he hit two batters) in the first inning, but he started pitching within himself and getting his breaking ball over," said Graham.
Lance Pendleton's two homers and two-run blasts by Adam Rodgers and Adam Hale provided Baker and relievers Colin Matheny and Eddie Degerman with ample offensive support.
The Owls (35-9, 17-3), trying to avoid their first sweep by a league opponent since Fresno State did it in 1997, grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Chris Kolkhorst started the game with a soft liner into center for a single. Pendleton, with a 2-2 count, fouled off seven offerings by UH starter Clary Carlsen before taking an outside pitch the opposite way and driving the ball over the left-field wall for a two-run homer. It was Pendleton's seventh four-bagger of the year.
Hawaii starting pitcher Clary Carlsen handed the ball to coach Mike Trapasso as he exited the game in the seventh inning.
The Owls then loaded the bases on singles by Paul Janish and Rodgers and a catcher's interference call on Matt Inouye on Matt Ueckert's grounder, but Carlsen, who used 45 pitches in the inning, got Adam Morris to fly to right to keep the deficit at two runs.
"They did a good job, a great job of getting their pitch. You have to tip your hat to them," Carlsen said.
Pendleton increased the Rice lead to 3-0 in the fifth when he cranked a 1-1 pitch from Carlsen over both fences in right field.
Baker, despite hitting two of the first four batters he faced, was in control through six innings, giving up just two singles and allowing only three 'Bows to reach second base.
Hawaii (29-17, 12-9) finally got on the scoreboard in the sixth when Isaac Omura doubled off the left-field wall. He raced home on a wild pitch that bounced over by the UH dugout and wasn't located immediately by Rodgers, the Rice catcher.
The Owls took a commanding lead with a seven-run seventh that began with Carlsen walking two batters. Pendleton sacrificed Clay Reichenbach to third and Kolkhorst to second. Davis popped up to Finegan at short, but Paul Janish singled to left on the first pitch from Carlsen to score both runners.
Carlsen was replaced by Chuck Withers and Rodgers sent his third pitch over the center-field wall for a two-run homer.
Rodriguez singled to deep short, stole second, continued to third on a wild pitch and scored on Ueckert's single.
UH's Isaac Omura rounded third base as he scored from second on a wild pitch that bounced away from the catcher.
Keahi Rawlins came out of the bullpen at that point and served up a two-run homer over the left-center-field wall to Hale.
"We put a lot of pressure on Clary's shoulders, especially when we have close games Friday and Saturday and use our top two guys out of the bullpen," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We need Clary to pitch well and go deep (into the sixth or seventh inning). Clary is our Sunday pitcher because he can handle the pressure. I felt for him. He pitched well.
"We imploded in the seventh and it was embarrassing."
The Rainbows head into the final three weeks of the regular season tied for second place with Nevada. They host Fresno State for three games starting Thursday, then finish conference play at Nevada and San Jose State. Nevada is at Rice this weekend.
"The way we played in the first two games was the way we should have played all year," Finegan said. "Today, they had it and we didn't. The two wins were huge for us, but if we don't continue to take care of business it will all be wasted."
Note: The turnstile count of 7,328 was the largest of the season for a three-game series, easily toping the 5,647 that showed up for the season-opening Texas series.
WAC standings
Conference All games W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Rice 17 3 .850 -- 35 9 .795 Hawaii 12 9 .571 5 1/2 29 17 .630 Nevada 12 9 .571 5 1/2 27 22 .551 Fresno State 10 11 .479 7 1/2 22 28 .440 San Jose State 8 16 .333 11 20 28 .429 Louisiana Tech 6 17 .261 12 1/2 15 34 .306 San Jose State has one non-conference tie.
Friday
Nevada 19, Louisiana Tech 3
Fresno St. 10, San Jose St. 1
Hawaii 7, Rice 5
Saturday
Nevada 11, Louisiana Tech 2
Fresno St. 14, San Jose St. 4
Hawaii 6, Rice 5
Yesterday
Nevada 4, Louisiana Tech 0
San Jose St. 6, Fresno St. 3
Rice 13, Hawaii 1
Rice 13, Hawaii 1
Rice AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Kolkhorst cf 5 2 1 0 Finegan ss 4 0 0 0 Pendleton rf 5 2 2 3 Sansaver 1b 3 0 1 0 Davis lf 5 1 1 0 Inouye c 2 0 0 0 Janish ss 6 1 2 2 Bell-Irving ph/c 1 0 1 0 Rodgers c 5 2 4 2 Mendoza rf 3 0 0 0 Rodriguez 2b 5 1 1 0 Omura 2b 2 1 1 0 Ueckert 1b 3 2 2 3 Castillo ph2b 1 0 0 0 Morris dh 2 0 0 0 Kish dh 2 0 0 0 Hale ph 3 1 2 3 Russo ph 1 0 0 0 Reichenbach 3b 2 1 0 0 Magana 3b 4 0 1 0 Thurber lf 4 0 0 0 Green cf 3 0 0 0 Totals 41 13 15 13 Totals 30 1 4 0 Rice 200 010 730 -- 13 15 0 Hawaii 000 001 000 -- 1 4 2 E--Sansaver, Inouye. LOB--Rice 9, Hawaii 8. 2B--Rodgers, Ueckert, Hale,Omura. HR--Pendleton 2, Rodgers, Hale. SH--Pendleton, Kish. SB--Rodriguez. CS--Davis. Reached on CI--Ueckert.
Rice IP H R ER BB SO Baker (W, 7-3) 6 2/3 3 1 1 2 6 Matheny 1 1/3 1 0 0 0 1 Degerman 1 0 0 0 0 1 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Carlsen (L, 6-6) 6 2/3 8 6 6 3 4 Withers 0 3 3 3 0 0 Rawlins 1 4 4 4 2 2 Wright 1 1/3 0 0 0 1 2 WP--Baker, Withers, Wright. HBP--by Baker (Sansaver), by Baker (Mendoza), by Baker (Green). Umpires--Kelly Gonzales (home plate), Billy Speck (first), Gary Montalbo(third).
T--3:11. A--1,692.
