Rainbows catch a
break in San Jose

Hawaii's Stephen Bryant gives up
just two hits in more than eight
innings as UH wins 1-0

Pitching and errorless defense were the keys for the Rainbow baseball team yesterday as it started the second half of Western Athletic Conference action with a 1-0 victory over the San Jose State Spartans at Blethen Field.

Stephen Bryant pitched 8 2/3 inning of masterful, two-hit baseball and Steven Wright completed the shutout by getting the final out for Hawaii.

In a reversal of this season's fortunes, the light-hitting 'Bows (19-23 overall, 6-10 WAC) caught a huge break to snap a 0-0 tie in the eighth inning.

Derek Dupree lined a single to left to start the inning, UH's fifth hit off SJSU starter Shane Brechmann. Joe Spiers walked. The runners moved up a base on Erik Ammon's sacrifice bunt

The Spartans (20-16-1, 9-7) then intentionally walked UH's leading hitter, Isaac Omura, to load the bases.

With a 1-1 count on Nate Thurber, the UH cleanup hitter took a second strike before SJSU catcher Justin Santich-Hughes tried to pick Dupree off third. Fortunately for the Rainbows, Santich-Hughes' throw went into left field, allowing Dupree to score the game's only run.

The run ended Hawaii's string of 20 consecutive innings without scoring.

"You play to win and I'm not going to apologize for catching any good breaks. We'll take that," said UH coach Mike Trapasso. "This year I think we're still owed another 15 or so."

Bryant, a senior right-hander from Chico, Calif., retired the first nine Spartans before Anthony Contreras singled to start the fourth.

Contreras was sacrificed to second and took third on a groundout, but Bryant got SJSU's cleanup hitter to ground out to Adam Roberts at first.

Twelve more Spartans went down in order before Bryant walked Nate Corrick to start the eighth. He was sacrificed to second, but was left there as Bryant got Nick Epidendio to fly to center and pinch hitter Ricky Sauceda to pop to short.

"Stephen was showing signs of being tired in the eighth inning, so my thinking was he would come out in the ninth at the first sign of trouble," said Trapasso.

Bryant retired the first two batters, but Ryan Angel doubled to left-center field on a full count to put the tying run in scoring position.

Wright relieved Bryant, ran the count to 3-2 on Chris Williammee, then induced the designated hitter to hit a ground ball to short for the final out.

"The thing Stephen had the most today and what we threw the most was his fastball. He had great command of his fastball and he kept it down in the zone," said Trapasso.

"When he struggled in the past, which was not a lot, his fastball would be up. He threw more fastballs than normal today. He had a good changeup and we used the curve exclusively with two strikes.

"When the wind changed in the second inning and started howling in, it became a tough day. We hit some balls hard I thought would be in the gaps, but the wind held them up. We were playing our outfield so shallow it was almost like a deep infield."

The three-game series continues today with a 10 a.m. Hawaii time game. Colby Summer will be on the mound for UH.

Note: Outfielders Matt Inouye and Jeff Piaskowski were suspended for yesterday's game for missing curfew.

WAC standings

	Conference				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Nevada	8	5	.615	--	19	16
San Jose State*	9	7	.563	1/2	20	16
Rice	9	7	.563	1/2	27	14
Louisiana Tech	7	9	.438	2 1/2	15	25
Fresno State	6	7	.462	2	20	22
Hawaii	6	10	.375	3 1/2	19	23

* -- San Jose State has one nonconference tie

Yesterday
Hawaii 1, San Jose State 0
Rice 12, Louisiana Tech 6
Fresno State 3, Nevada 1
Today
Hawaii at San Jose State
Louisiana Tech at Rice
Nevada at Fresno State

Hawaii 1, San Jose State 0

Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI	SJSU	AB	R	H	BI
Spiers ss	3	0	1	0	Contreras ss	4	0	1	0
Ammon rf	3	0	0	0	Angel lf/2b	3	0	1	0
Omura 2b	2	0	1	0	Williammee dh	4	0	0	0
Thurber lf	4	0	2	0	Fromm 1b	3	0	0	0
Roberts 1b	4	0	0	0	Corrick rf	2	0	0	0
Magana 3b	3	0	0	0	Becktel cf	2	0	0	0
Russo dh	4	0	0	0	Epidendio 3b	3	0	0	0
Lopez c	3	0	0	0	Pierson 2b	2	0	0	0
Dupree cf	3	1	1	0	Sauceda ph	1	0	0	0
					Hall lf	0	0	0	0
					Santich-Hughes c	2	0	0	0
					Birrenkott ph	1	0	0	0
Totals	29	1	5	0	Totals	27	0	2	0
Hawaii	000	000	010	--	1	5	0
SJSU	000	000	000	--	0	2	3

E--Pierson (3); Santich-Hughes (3); Brechmann. DP--SJSU 1. LOB--Hawaii 7, SJSU 3. 2B--Angel (10). SH--Ammon (4); Angel (9); Becktel (1).

Hawaii	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Bryant (W, 6-3)	8 2/3	2	0	0	1	4
Wright (S, 3)	1/3	0	0	0	0	0
SJSU	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Brechmann (L, 1-2)	7	5	1	0	2	5
Winck	2	0	0	0	1	2

HBP--by Brechmann (Magana); by Brechmann (Lopez). BK--Brechmann (3).
Umpires--Ray Belfiore (plate), Chad McCardell (first), Richard Padilla (third).
T--2:14. A--289.