Hawaii third baseman Schafer Magana and Louisiana Tech baserunner Gil Laird looked for the call from third-base umpire Rod Ridd in the top of the fourth inning. Laird was called safe on the sacrifice fly and would eventually score.
Meyer shuts down
Rainbows
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs made excellent use of their offensive opportunities to even the Western Athletic Conference series against Hawaii at one win apiece.
Senior right-hander Clayton Meyer shut down the Rainbows with six hits in the 5-2 victory last night before the largest Les Murakami Stadium crowd, 3,004, of the season.
Steve Alverson pitched a perfect ninth to pick up his second save of the season.
Meyer, who had a 2-3 record with a 4.67 earned-run average entering the game, blanked UH (13-11, 1-1 WAC) on five hits through seven innings. He was in trouble just once, in the fourth, until he walked the bases full with one out in the eighth.
Meyer almost wiggled out of trouble when he got Rocky Russo to pop out down the third-base line, but Greg Kish lined a single to right to score Erik Ammon and Matt Inouye.
That was the extent of the Hawaii offense for the night.
"We couldn't make an adjustment to Meyer's changeup. We didn't try to make an adjustment until it was too late," said UH coach Mike Trapasso.
"He did a great job. He found a pitch that worked and stayed with it. He threw it 70 percent of the time. You have to tip your hat to him."
Ricky Bauer started for the Rainbows and retired the first seven batters he faced.
The first Bulldog to get a ball out of the infield against Bauer was No. 8 batter Albie Goulder, who lined the first pitch to left-center field for a one-out double in the third inning. He took third on a wild pitch and scored on Matt Lacy's grounder to second.
LaTech (8-15, 1-1) took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, which began with a single to right by Ben Tabor. He advanced to third on Gil Laird's double to right-center and scored on Ryan Hamilton's sacrifice fly to left. Laird also moved up on the fly out and scored on Brandon Hudson's grounder to second.
The Rainbows had the makings of a rally when Inouye and Luis Avila singled to start the bottom of the inning. Meyer fell behind Russo 2-0, but came back to fan the UH designated hitter. Kish then hit into a forceout at second and Jose Castaneda grounded back to Meyer for the final out.
"He (Meyer) just kept us off-balance. He hit his spots with the off-speed stuff very well," said Isaac Omura. "It is a disappointing loss. We have to come out tomorrow strong and win the series."
It was the only inning in the first seven that the 'Bows put the lead-off man on base. Of the seven runners left on base through seven innings, five reached base after two were out, limiting the strategic possibilities.
Despite 11 of his 13 outs coming on ground balls, Bauer got into trouble in the fifth on one-out singles by Lacy and Brandon Haygood.
Trapasso brought Justin Costi in from the bullpen. He got the second out on a fielder's choice grounder back to the mound, but gave up a run-scoring single to Tabor on a 3-0 pitch for a 4-0 LaTech lead.
"Ricky's two-seamer (fastball) had life and bite early and was done, but he lost it and didn't make good pitches later in the game," said Trapasso.
The Bulldogs took a 5-0 lead in the eighth when Laird doubled to right center with one down and scored on a double to left center by Hamilton.
Stephen Bryant will start for UH in today's 1 p.m. series finale.
WAC standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L San Jose State* 1 0 1.000 -- 11 8 Hawaii 1 1 .500 -- 13 11 Louisiana Tech 1 1 .500 -- 8 15 Nevada 0 0 .000 -- 11 7 Fresno State 0 0 .000 -- 14 15 Rice 0 1 .000 -- 15 6
* -- San Jose State has one nonconference tieFriday
San Jose State 10, Rice 8
Hawaii 8, Louisiana Tech 6
USC 6, Nevada 5
Fresno State 9, Iona 1
Fresno State 18, Iona 5Yesterday
Rice at San Jose State, ppd
Fresno State 4, Iona 1
Nevada 12, UC Irvine 7
Louisiana Tech 5, Hawaii 2Today
Nevada at Stony Brook
Rice at San Jose State (2)
Louisiana Tech at Hawaii
Louisiana Tech 5, Hawaii 2
LaTech AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Haygood 2b 5 0 2 0 Spiers ss 5 0 0 0 Cobb cf 4 0 0 0 Ammon c 3 1 1 0 Tabor dh 4 1 2 1 Omura 2b 3 0 2 0 Laird rf 4 2 2 0 Inouye cf 4 1 1 0 Hamilton 3b 3 0 1 2 Avila 1b 3 0 1 0 Hudson lf 2 0 0 1 Russo dh 4 0 0 0 ÊRamon ph 0 0 0 0 Kish lf-rf 3 0 1 2 ÊBascle lf 1 0 0 0 Castaneda rf 3 0 0 0 Boyce c 4 0 0 0 Dupree lf 1 0 0 0 Goulder 1b 4 1 1 0 Magana 3b 4 0 0 0 ÊMcCarthy 1b 0 0 0 0 Lacy ss 4 1 2 1 Totals 35 5 10 5 Totals 33 2 6 2 LaTech 001 210 010 -- 5 10 0 Hawaii 000 000 020 -- 2 6 1 E--Spiers. LOB--LaTech 5, Hawaii 9. 2B--Haygood; Laird 2; Hamilton; Goulder. SH--Ramon. SF--Hamilton. CS--Lacy.
LaTech IP H R ER BB SO Mayer (W, 3-3) 8 6 2 2 5 4 Alverson (S, 2) 1 0 0 0 0 1 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Bauer (L, 1-2) 4 1/3 6 4 4 0 1 Costi 4 2/3 4 1 1 0 4 WP--Bauer.
Umpires--Kelly Gonzales (home), Kendal Snyder (first), Ron Ridd (third).
T--2:43. A--3,004.
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