Rainbows turn on the
power just in time

Hawaii strayed from its formula last night, relying on power to come from behind and beat Washington State 10-9 in a nonconference college baseball game at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Rainbows broke a 9-all tie in the bottom of the 10th inning off the Cougars' fourth pitcher, Nick Cebula. With the bases loaded and no outs, Luis Avila lined a sharp hit to right to score Joe Spiers with the game-winning run in front of 1,831.

"My teammates did the job setting it up for me," Avila said. "I was seeing the breaking pitch a lot in my last two at-bats, so I went up there looking for it and I got a high, hanging curve."

Spiers led off the winning rally with a walk and Troy Hanzawa followed by getting hit with a pitch for the second time in the game before both advanced when Matt Inouye reached on a sacrifice bunt and an error.

For UH (7-4), the game was a far cry from Friday night's 6-1 victory over Washington State, when Stephen Bryant and Steven Wright held the Cougars to just six hits.

Last night, four Hawaii pitchers allowed 12 hits, but the offense pulled through for 11 hits and won it for reliever Darrell Fisherbaugh, who struck out five in 2 2/3 innings.

"It was an incredible college baseball game," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "You're not going to find that kind of drama at every venue. It was a high-emotion game -- emotion that was hanging on every pitch."

Trailing 9-6 after the Cougars' six-run, sixth-inning rally, Hawaii worked to tie it 9-all when Schafer Magana hit a two-run double in the sixth and Spiers tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the seventh.

"We played pretty well overall, except for that sixth inning," Trapasso said. "We were lucky that it was still early and we answered big with those two runs to get it to 1. We knew then that the game was within reach.

"Fisherbaugh was our savior. As for Luis, we knew that in that scenario, with the infield in, that he's usually going to at least get a fly ball."

The Rainbows also fought back from an early 3-0 deficit and appeared to be in control, leading 6-3, until the Cougars (6-7) sent 10 batters to the plate in the sixth and plugged away with five hits off of three UH pitchers to go ahead 9-6. Jay Miller's two-run single and Zach Kosturos' three-run double caused the damage.

"We didn't sustain the momentum," Washington State coach Don Marbut said. "We got that 6 spot, but we gave two right back. If we had held them to zero, then maybe the game changes.

"There's not much you can do (about Avila's last at-bat). We were looking to get a 'K' and then try to set up a double play."

The Cougars tagged Rainbows right-handed starter Colby Summer early. With Kaeo Rubin aboard on a single in the first inning, cleanup hitter Brady Everett ripped a two-out, 0-2 pitch and the wind-aided line shot carried over the right-field fence for a quick 2-0 lead.

Washington State made it 3-0 in the second with another two-out rally. Jeff Miller drew a base on balls and promptly scored when Matthew Thomas drilled a triple to the gap in right-center.

Showing no signs of panic, Hawaii ate away at the deficit by sending 17 batters to the plate and scoring six runs over the next two innings.

The Rainbows were dealt a bad blow in the top of the fifth when Omura strained his left knee in a fall while retrieving a throw from Lopez, the catcher, on Jason Freeman's successful steal of second. Omura, a junior, was helped off the field, done for the night after going 3-for-3 to lift his batting average to .421.

Hawaii 10, Washington St. 9

WSU	AB	R	H	BI	Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI
Rubin rf	6	2	2	0	Spiers ss	3	2	2	2
Freeman, Jas. cf	4	1	1	1	Hanzawa dh	3	0	0	0
Miller, Ja. lf	6	1	3	2	Inouye cf	5	0	0	0
Everett c	3	2	1	2	Avila 1b	6	1	2	1
Kosturos dh	4	0	1	3	Omura 2b	3	2	3	0
McAngus 3b	5	1	1	0	Hee 3b	2	1	0	0
Hall 1b	4	0	0	0	Magana 3bÚ2b	4	2	2	2
Kimbrel ph	1	0	0	0	Asato rf	4	1	2	1
Alexander 1b	0	0	0	0	Lopez c	3	1	0	1
Miller, Je. 2b	4	2	2	0	Castaneda lf	3	0	0	2
Thomas ss	5	0	1	1	Kish ph	1	0	0	0
					Wilderlf	0	0	0	0
Totals	42	9	12	9	Totals	37	10	11	9

WSU	210	006	000	0	--	9	12	5
Hawaii	024	002	100	1	--	10	11	0

E--Rubin, Miller, Ja., McAngus, Miller, Je., Thomas. LOB--WSU 9, Hawaii 12. 2B--Kosturos, Avila, Omura, Magana. 3B--Thomas, Spiers. HR--Everett. SH--Inouye, Lopez. SF--Castaneda. SB--Miller, Je, Spiers 2, Hanzawa. CS--Omura.

WSU	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Webb	2 1/3	4	6	6	5	2
Oye	3	5	2	0	0	2
Dingwall	2 2/3	1	1	1	0	4
Cebula (L, 1-2)	1	1	1	1	1	1
Hawaii	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Summer	5 1/3	8	5	5	2	4
Olsen	1/3	2	3	3	1	1
McDowell	1 2/3	2	1	1	2	2
Fischerbaugh (W. 1-0)	2 2/3	0	0	0	1	5

WP--Oye 2, Dingwall, Summer. HBP--by Webb (Asato), by Oye (Hanzawa), by Cebula (Hanzawa). PB--Everett.
Umpires--Gary Montalbo (home), Don Greman (first), Jim LeBeau (third).
T--3:48. A--2,548.