San Jose State's Justin Santich-Hughes tagged out Hawaii's Joe Spiers in a rundown between third and home in the fifth.
Split with San Jose State
stops Hawaii’s losing streak
The Rainbows end a seven-game skid
with a victory over the Spartans
in the nightcap
Hawaii's seven-game losing streak is over and it took a gut check for the Rainbows to finally post a victory.
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"I think we just lacked a bit of confidence. Baseball is a game of streaks. Hopefully our down spell for the season is over," said senior right-hander Ricky Bauer, who earned the win with 4 2/3 innings of shutout relief in the second game.
The Rainbows (14-17, 2-6 WAC) took an early lead with four runs in the second inning off SJSU starter Branden Dewing, who had allowed just one run in two complete-game victories the first two weeks of the WAC season.
A two-out walk to Nate Thurber started the most productive inning since the Louisiana Tech series finale. He scored on a double down the left-field line by Schafer Magana, who then scored on a Luis Avila's double into the left-field corner.
Esteban Lopez lined a single to center, scoring Avila. Joe Spiers got the fourth consecutive two-out hit off Dewing, a double to center that scored Lopez for a 4-0 Hawaii lead.
The lead disappeared in the fifth. The Spartans (16-10-1, 6-2) put their own four-spot on the scoreboard to go ahead 5-4.
SJSU's comeback started with Travis Becktel's third homer of the year, a leadoff shot over the right-field wall in the third.
Other than that, UH starter Colby Summer pitched four good innings, but did not survive the fifth, which started with a double down the left-field line by Becktel. He took third on a balk. Summer then hit Justin Santich-Hughes with a one-strike pitch.
Hawaii's Schafer Magana tagged out San Jose State's Ryan Angel at third in the top of the fifth inning yesterday.
"For me, Colby lost his location with his fastball and changeup and never had his slurve," said UH pitching coach Chad Konishi.
Bauer relieved and got Brandon Fromm to bounce to first, but both runners were safe when Avila's throw to second on the potential double-play ball was wide. Contreras then put SJSU ahead 5-4 when he scored on Chris Williammee's double to right.
"After they scored their four runs I could feel the wind going out of our sails," said Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso. "I got the guys together and asked them, 'Do you think this is going to be easy? Do you think four runs is enough?' We're going to give up runs and you need to score more."
Hawaii tied the score at 5 in the bottom of the inning. Lopez singled to left and scored when Spiers doubled to right-center field.
The 'Bows took a 6-5 lead in the seventh on Magana's double to the alley in right and Avila's double past the third-base bag.
Bauer made the one-run margin stand up. Becktel doubled to start the sixth, but the next three Spartans could not get the ball out of the infield. After that no Spartan reached second base.
"I think I fell into my groove. I felt comfortable out there. I just ran into a funk and hopefully I'm out of that," said Bauer, who had control of all his pitches.
Trapasso was pleased with the 'Bows' execution, even in the opener, as they sacrificed and moved runners up a base. The only one that backfired was the suicide-squeeze attempt by Isaac Omura in the fifth inning. The pitch was 2 feet outside in the dirt and Spiers was out in a rundown.
"That doesn't count. You can't do anything about that," said Trapasso. "The first game was our typical horrible game of the last two weeks. Let's hope the second game changed our fortunes."
The Spartans scored a run in the third inning of the opener after having their first two innings end on double-play ground balls. Pierson stroked a one-out double to left-center field, took third on a grounder and scored on Contreras' soft line single to right.
The 'Bows, who did not take advantage of leadoff singles by Spiers and Adam Roberts in the first and second innings, made use of an SJSU fielding error in the third that allowed Spiers to reach first with one out.
Spiers took second on Robbie Wilder's single off Spartan starting pitcher Brandon Hennessey and scored on Omura's double to left-center. Wilder stopped at third, then scored on Matt Inouye's sacrifice fly to left. That ended the UH offense.
GAME 1
San Jose State 6, Hawaii 2
SJSU AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Contreras ss 5 1 3 3 Spiers ss 5 1 3 0 Angel lf 4 0 2 0 Wilder lf 4 1 1 0 Becktel cf 4 0 0 0 Omura 2b 4 0 2 1 Fromm 1b 5 1 1 0 Inouye rf 3 0 0 1 Corrick rf 4 0 1 0 Roberts 1b 4 0 1 0 Williammee dh 2 1 1 1 Ammon c 3 0 0 0 Campos 3b 4 0 0 0 Avila dh 4 0 0 0 Pierson 2b 4 3 3 0 Magana 3b 4 0 1 0 Sntch-Hghs c 3 0 0 0 Dupree cf 3 0 0 0 Thurber ph 1 0 1 0 Totals 35 6 11 4 Totals 35 2 9 2 San Jose State 001 100 301 -- 6 11 1 Hawaii 002 000 000 -- 2 9 1 E--Fromm, Spiers. DP--Hawaii 2. LOB--San Jose State 7, Hawaii 9. 2B--Angel, Pierson, Spiers, Omura, Thurber. SH--Santich-Hughes, Wilder. SF--Inouye.
San Jose State IP H R ER BB SO Hennessey 4 1/3 6 2 0 0 0 Brechmann (W, 1-0) 4 2/3 3 0 0 0 0 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Bryant (L, 4-2) 6 2/3 8 4 4 0 5 Wright 2 1/3 3 2 1 3 1 HBP--by Bryant (Williammee); by Brechmann (Ammon). BK--Wright 3.
Umpires--Ken Eldridge (plate), David Rogers (first), Danny Mascarro (third).
T--2:43. A--nÚa.
GAME 2
Hawaii 6, San Jose State 5
SJSU AB R H BI Hawaii AB R H BI Pierson 2b 4 0 1 1 Spiers ss 4 0 2 2 Angel lf 5 1 2 1 Kish rf 4 0 0 0 Contreras ss 4 1 1 1 Omura 2b 3 0 0 0 Fromm 1b 4 0 0 0 Russo dh 3 0 0 0 Corrick rf 4 0 0 0 Inouye cf 4 0 0 0 Williammee dh 3 0 2 1 Thurber lf 3 1 1 0 Campos 3b 3 0 0 0 Dupree lf 0 0 0 0 Epidendio ph 1 0 1 0 Magana 3b 3 2 2 1 Becktel cf 4 2 3 1 Avila 1b 3 1 2 2 Sntch-Hghs 2 1 0 0 Lopez c 2 2 2 1 Birrenkott ph 1 0 0 0 Totals 35 5 10 5 Totals 29 6 9 6 San Jose State 001 040 000 -- 5 10 0 Hawaii 040 010 10x -- 6 9 1 E--Avila. DP--San Jose State 1, Hawaii 2. LOB--San Jose State 6, Hawaii 3. 2B--Angel, Williammee, Becktel 2, Spiers 2, Thurber, Magana 2, Avila 2. HR--Becktel. SH--Russo. SF--Pierson. CS--Spiers.
San Jose State IP H R ER BB SO Dawing 5 7 5 5 1 1 Winck (L, 1-2) 2 2/3 2 1 1 2 0 Waite 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 Hawaii IP H R ER BB SO Summer 4 1/3 6 5 4 0 1 Bauer (W, 2-2) 4 2/3 4 0 0 0 1 WP--Dawing. HBP--by Summer (Williammee); by Summer (Santich). BK--Summer.
Umpires--David Rogers (plate), Danny Mascarro (first), Ken Eldridge(third).
T--2:27. A--2,239.
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