’Bows get rare
sweep on road

Inouye’s 11th-inning homer
gives UH its first WAC sweep
on the road since 1999

Matt Inouye blasted a one-ball pitch over the left-field wall in the 11th inning for the winning run as Hawaii edged San Jose State 4-3 yesterday to sweep the three-game Western Athletic Conference series at Blethen Field.

HAWAII 4 SAN JOSE ST. 3 NEXT UP vs. Nevada, Thursday

It is the first time the Rainbows have swept a WAC series on the mainland since winning all three games at Utah in 1999.

"As long as we win we don't care how interesting it is. This win was huge. Obviously we want to turn it into something that will grow. Hopefully our players will see how much fun it is and want to keep it going," said UH coach Mike Trapasso.

The win did not come easy for the 'Bows (21-23, 8-10 WAC), who took their first lead, 3-2, in the top of the ninth after trailing 1-0 and 2-1.

However, the Spartans (20-18-1, 9-9) rallied and forced extra innings on Nate Corrick's two-out, run-scoring single to right in the bottom of the ninth. That scored David Pierson, who singled with one out and moved to second on Anthony Contreras' bloop single to left.

Randy Waite retired the first two UH hitters in the 11th on a routine fly ball and a pop-up before Inouye cracked his second homer of the season.

"The Spartans are a good team. They were battling. After we took the lead, they came right back and got the big two-out hit. Then we had another guy (Inouye) who decided to be a hero," said Trapasso.

Inouye wanted to make sure the team caught its flight home from San Francisco last night.

"Selfishly, yes, I was thinking home run. The first pitch was a fastball down and out," said Inouye. "I actually was looking for something off-speed, but I saw a fastball pop up in the zone and just tried to put my best swing on it.

"It feels so good to win all three games here. It keeps our hopes alive."

Hawaii had another mighty hit from first baseman Adam Roberts, who drove in both runs in the ninth with a two-out double down the left-field line. The inning started with Isaac Omura's single. He was sacrificed to second by Jonathan Hee and took third on a single by Schafer Magana.

"The first couple of innings we hit some balls hard, but right at guys. Then in the middle innings we were back to our old selves, but the feeling was different in the dugout," Trapasso said.

"We had the feeling we would get to their pitcher. We knew we had to battle when they brought their closer in. It was just big for our guys to come up when it counted."

SJSU took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when UH starter Justin Costi walked Corrick with one out, then wild-pitched him to second, from where he scored on Ricky Sauceda's two-out single up the middle.

UH tied the score at 1-1 in the sixth when Esteban Lopez singled to center to begin the inning. He was safe at second on an error by SJSU starter Matt Winck on Derek Dupree's sacrifice bunt. Lopez advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Joe Spiers' sacrifice fly to right.

Contreras' single to center scored Josh Thomas to put the Spartans up 2-1 in the seventh.

Darrell Fisherbaugh (4-1) got the win with 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. He gave up three hits, but walked no one and struck out three.

An important factor in the sweep was 27 innings of errorless baseball by the UH defense.

UH went 3-1 on the road trip, the first winning mainland trek under Trapasso, and improved to 10-5 in one-run games and 7-12 in day games in 2005.

The 'Bows open a three-game league series against the Nevada Wolf Pack on Thursday at 6:36 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.

WAC standings

	Conference				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Rice	11	7	.611	--	29	14
Nevada	9	6	.600	1/2	20	17
San Jose State*	9	9	.500	2	20	18
Fresno State	7	8	.467	2 1/2	21	23
Hawaii	8	10	.444	3	21	23
Louisiana Tech	7	11	.389	4	15	27

* -- San Jose State has one nonconference tie

Yesterday
Hawaii 4, San Jose State 3 (11 innings)
Rice 6, Louisiana Tech 2
Nevada 8, Fresno State 2

Hawaii 4, San Jose State 3

Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI	SJSU	AB	R	H	BI
Spiers ss	2	0	1	1	Contreras ss	6	0	2	1
Ammon lf	4	0	0	0	Angel lf	6	0	0	0
Omura 2b	5	1	2	0	Corrick rf	4	1	2	1
Thurber dh	3	0	0	0	Birrenkott 1b	3	0	1	0
Hee ph	1	0	0	0	Fromm 1b	1	0	0	0
Magana 3b	5	1	1	0	Sauceda dh	5	0	1	1
Roberts 1b	4	0	1	2	Becktel cf	4	0	2	0
Kish pr	0	0	0	0	Campos 3b	5	0	1	0
Avila 1b	1	0	0	0	Thomas c	2	1	1	0
Inouye rf	5	1	1	1	Santich-Hghs c	0	0	0	0
Lopez c	5	1	1	0	Williammee ph	1	0	0	0
Dupree cf	4	0	3	0	Fitch c	1	0	0	0
					Pierson 2b	2	1	2	0
Totals	39	4	10	4	Totals	40	3	12	3
Hawaii	000	001	002	01	--	4	10	0
San Jose St.	000	100	101	00	--	6	11	1

E--Winck. DP--Hawaii 2, SJSU 1. LOB--Hawaii 7, SJSU 11. 2B--Roberts (7). HR--Inouye (2). SH--Spiers (5), Hee (2), Pierson 3 (13). SF--Spiers (1). SB--Dupree (1), Corrick (6).

Hawaii	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Costi	6 1/3	6	2	2	2	2
Wright	2	3	1	1	1	2
Fisherbaugh (W, 4-1)	2 2/3	3	0	0	0	3
San Jose State	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Winck	6	4	1	0	0	1
Jones	3	4	2	2	1	2
Waite (L, 1-2)	2	2	1	1	1	0

HBP--by Costi (Bechtel). WP--Costi (5), Winck (2). Umpires--Richard Padilla (plate), Ray Belfiore (first), Chad McCardell (third).
T--2:58. A--321.