UH beats Pacific with
hefty comeback

Rainbows score eight unanswered
runs in the seventh, eighth innings

The Hawaii Rainbows rallied in the seventh inning to take the lead and added insurance in the eighth to defeat Pacific 9-3 in the opener of a four-game nonconference series last night at Les Murakami Stadium.

Steven Wright earned the win in relief of Ricky Bauer. The sophomore right-hander retired seven of the eight batters he faced, striking out four.

"Every time I go out I just try to improve on the little things. It makes the big picture sweeter," said Wright, who said he had command of all four pitches, fastball, curve, changeup and slider.

Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said, "We didn't have a lot of toughness early, but you have to give credit to (Jason) Haar for some of that. We need to bring the level we showed in the last three innings to the first three innings."

Bauer was not sharp in the first inning and the Tigers took advantage to score a run.

Anthony Jackson started the inning with an opposite-field single to left on a two-strike pitch, but was thrown out trying to steal second. Bauer then hit Bob Saunders with a pitch and, with two outs, wild-pitched Saunders to second, from where he scored on Jerin Harper's line single to left.

The 'Bows tied the score at 1-1 in the third when Esteban Lopez hit a leadoff single to center and moved to second on Robbie Wilder's sacrifice bunt. Joe Spiers followed with a single to right to score Lopez.

Pacific came right back with two runs in the top of the fourth as Bauer struggled finding the strike zone with the first two batters, walking Matt Berezay and giving up Harper's line single to left on a 3-1 pitch. With one out, Jordan Seiber's single to left brought Berezay home and moved Harper to third. He scored on Jesse Kovacs' high bouncer to first.

With runners at first and third with two outs in the seventh, Bauer was relieved by Wright, who threw one pitch, getting Saunders to ground to short for a force at second to end the inning.

Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso was ejected by plate umpire Jim LeBeau after LeBeau ruled leadoff batter Schafer Magana intentionally leaned into a pitch that hit his left forearm.

Magana eventually walked and scored when Lopez ripped a double inside the bag at third down the line into the corner.

Brett Manning, in relief of UOP starter Haar, got pinch hitter Jose Castaneda to ground out, but Spiers lined a single to right that advanced Lopez to third. Greg Kish walked, loading the bases.

Isaac Omura grounded a 1-2 pitch from Manning into center that scored Lopez and Spiers for a 4-3 UH lead.

Spiers, who was 3-for-5 with two RBIs, said, "We had runners on the move, so a lot of holes opened up for me. It has been a struggle trusting my hands, but I think I'm getting it. We shouldn't have to wait for our coach to get thrown out before catching fire."

Hawaii scored five insurance runs in the eighth that started with Pacific's third pitcher, Brad Schultz, hitting two of the first three batters. When the runners advanced on a wild pitch, Lopez was intentionally walked.

Castaneda's slow grounder to short scored Jonathan Hee. Spiers singled to left, scoring Magana. Kish singled home Castaneda. Spiers then scored on a wild pitch and Kish followed him home on a throwing error by Pacific catcher Ryan Amos.

Stephen Bryant starts for UH tonight against Tyler McCready, an Iolani graduate, who transferred to Pacific last fall from Sierra College.

Hawaii 9, Pacific 3

Pacific	AB	R	H	BI	Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI
Jackson ss	3	0	1	0	Spiers ss	5	2	3	2
Saunders 2b	3	1	0	0	Kish rf/lf	3	1	1	1
Berezay rf	3	1	0	0	Omura 2b	4	0	2	2
Harper lf	4	1	2	1	Avila 1b	5	0	1	0
Baum 1b	4	0	1	0	Inouye cf	3	0	0	0
Seiber dh	4	0	1	1	Russo dh	3	0	0	0
Kovacs 3b	4	0	1	1	ÊHee ph	1	1	0	0
Glasgow cf	4	0	1	0	Magana 3b	2	2	0	0
Amos c	3	0	0	0	Lopez c	3	2	3	1
ÊChing ph	1	0	0	0	Wilder lf	1	0	0	0
					Castaneda ph/rf	2	1	0	1
Totals	33	3	7	3	Totals	32	9	10	7

Pacific	100	200	000	--	3	7	1
Hawaii	001	000	35x	--	9	10	1

E--Amos, Lopez. LOB--Pacific 6, Hawaii 7. 2B--Kovacs, Omura, Lopez. SH--Wilder. SB--Spiers. CS--Jackson, Kish.

Pacific	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Haar	6	6	3	3	2	5
Manning (L, 0-1)	1/3	2	1	1	1	0
Schultz	1 1/3	2	5	4	1	1
Williams	1/3	0	0	0	1	0
Hawaii	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Bauer	6 2/3	6	3	3	2	5
Wright (W, 1-0)	2 1/3	1	0	0	0	4

WP--Schultz, Williams 2. HBP--by Bauer (Saunders); by Schultz (Inouye); by Schultz (Magana).
Umpires--Jim LeBeau (home), Mike Evans (first), Don Greman (third).
T--3:08. A--950.