[ COLLEGE BASEBALL ]
Durkin, Spartans
shut down Rainbows
on 3-hitter
Junior right-hander Matt Durkin held Hawaii to three hits and San Jose State blanked the Rainbows 8-0 yesterday in the opener of a three-game Western Athletic Conference baseball series at Municipal Stadium in San Jose, Calif.
"It was a complete team effort. We played like we were out of gas," Rainbow coach Mike Trapasso said after his team fell to 31-22 overall, 13-14 WAC. "It was just a bad game. It didn't matter what Durkin was doing. He was good, but we were just not there today.
"I think all the adversity, the injuries and the season caught up with us. It was our most lethargic game of the year."
The first two hits off Durkin were followed by double-play balls from the bats of Isaac Omura in the second inning and Jaziel Mendoza in the seventh.
Through the first seven innings, 12 of the 21 outs Durkin recorded were the result of ground balls and five more were via whiffs. He walked five, hit a batter and fanned eight in a complete-game effort.
UH starter Ricky Bauer, who thrives on ground-ball outs, managed to get just five in his six innings of work and the defense behind him aided and abetted the Spartans by making four errors.
Leadoff batter Kevin Frandsen tripled off the left-field wall and scored on Ryan Angel's sacrifice fly to give the Spartans (21-31-1, 9-19) a 1-0 lead in the first.
San Jose took advantage of shoddy Rainbow defense to score four unearned runs for a 5-0 lead in the fourth.
Josh Lansford reached on a one-out fielding error by shortstop Brian Finegan and moved to third on Travis Becktel's double to left. Brandon Fromm singled to right, scoring Lansford, with Becktel stopping at third.
Becktel scored when third baseman Schafer Magana booted Nate Corrick's grounder. Justin Santich-Hughes singled to center, scoring Fromm. Frandsen's single advanced Corrick to third, from where he scored on a passed ball.
The Rainbows had a runner at second base in the third with one out and again in the eighth with two outs, but could not produce a timely hit.
In the ninth, Durkin walked Greg Kish and hit Matt Inouye to start the inning, but struck out Mendoza and Rocky Russo. Andrew Sansaver, who had two singles to center, walked, loading the bases, but Omura took a called third strike on Durkin's 141st pitch to end the game.
Stephen Bryant goes after his eighth win of the year today starting for the Rainbows.
Suzuki named Sports Weekly All-American
Maui's Kurt Suzuki added another award to his growing resume yesterday when the Baldwin High School alumnus was named a second-team All-American by Sports Weekly, the weekly publication affiliated with USA Today.Suzuki, a junior catcher at Cal State Fullerton, is fifth in the nation in batting (.438), 10th in RBIs per game (1.32) and 22nd in slugging percentage (.726). On the Big West Conference leaderboard, he ranks among the top three in 10 categories, including first in batting, on-base and slugging averages, RBIs, and sacrifice flies.
Suzuki, a walk-on as a freshman, is a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award, which is presented annually to college baseball's top catcher. He is also on the Baseball America Player of the Year watch list.
San Jose St. 8, Hawaii 0
Hawaii AB R H BI SJSU AB R H BI Finegan ss 4 0 0 0 Frandsen 3b 5 2 3 0 Kish rf 3 0 0 0 Angel lf 3 1 1 2 Inouye c 2 0 1 0 Contreras ss 5 0 2 1 Mendoza lf 4 0 0 0 Lansford dh 5 1 2 1 Russo dh 4 0 0 0 Becktel rf 5 1 2 0 Sansaver 1b 3 0 2 0 Fromm 1b 3 1 1 1 Omura 2b 4 0 0 0 Corrick cf 4 1 0 1 Magana 3b 1 0 0 0 Martinez 2b 4 0 0 0 Green cf 2 0 0 0 Sntch-Hghs c 4 1 2 1 Totals 27 0 3 0 Totals 38 8 13 7 Hawaii 000 000 000 -- 0 3 4 SJSU 100 402 01x -- 8 13 0 E--Finegan 3, (17); Magana (3). DP--Hawaii 2, SJSU 2. LOB--Hawaii 7, SJSU 9. 2B--Frandsen (13); Contreras (5); Becktel 2, (6). 3B--Frandsen (2). SH--Green (3). SF--Angel (2).
Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Bauer (L, 8-4) 6.0 10 7 3 1 4 Wright 2.0 3 1 1 0 2 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Durkin (W, 8-5) 9.0 3 0 0 5 8 WP--Durkin (2). HBP--by Bauer (Angel); by Durkin (Inouye). PB--Inouye (6). Umpires--Larry Randall (plate), Dan Payne (first), Tom Chandler (third).
T--2:14. A--569.
WAC standings
Conference All games W L Pct. GB W L Pct. x-Rice 22 5 .815 -- 41 11 .788 Fresno St. 15 12 .556 7 27 29 .482 Nevada 14 14 .500 8 1/2 30 27 .526 Hawaii 13 14 .481 9 31 22 .585 LaTech 9 18 .333 13 19 36 .345 San Jose St. 9 19 .321 13 1/2 21 31 .404 x-clinched WAC title
San Jose State has one non-conference tie.Yesterday
San Jose St. 8, Hawaii 0
Rice 10, Louisiana Tech 0
Fresno State 12, Nevada 5
Today
Hawaii at San Jose State, Noon
Louisiana Tech at Rice (2)
Nevada at Fresno State