DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Isaac Omura was safe at first after Nevada's Ben Mummy couldn't handle an errant throw.

’Bows sweep again

Costi tosses eight shutout innings
as UH wins its sixth straight

Justin Costi shut out Nevada for eight innings to lead Hawaii to a series sweep of the Nevada Wolf Pack with an 8-0 victory before 2,911 fans at Les Murakami Stadium last night.

HAWAII 8 NEVADA 0 NEXT UP vs. Fresno St., May 12

The Rainbows' sixth consecutive win gave them the season series (4-2) against the Wolf Pack for the first time since they joined the Western Athletic Conference in 2001.

Costi's eight innings equaled his longest outing of the season -- vs. Louisiana-Lafayette on March 5, his first win of the season. Last night, the junior right-hander allowed six hits, walked two and struck out four to win his second game this year.

"This was my best game of the year. It was definitely more important," said Costi. "It is awesome to sweep two teams in a row."

Derek Dupree was 3-for-4 and scored twice, Isaac Omura and Schafer Magana each knocked in two runs while Magana, Nate Thurber and Joe Spiers contributed two hits each.

Nevada had runners in scoring position in the first, second, fourth, fifth and eighth innings, but Costi was equal to the task each time. Costi got the final out on ground balls in four of those instances and induced WAC preseason player of the year Brett Hayes to fly out to Matt Inouye in right to end the fifth.

Costi said eight innings were enough, his pitch count was high, so Rich Olsen pitched a perfect ninth inning.

"Justin had command of all three pitches -- fastball, curve and changeup -- and he used all three to keep the hitters off balance," said batterymate Esteban Lopez.

UH pitching coach Chad Konishi said, "We had a different pitching plan all weekend. We went away Friday with Stephen Bryant and tonight we pitched inside so they couldn't get comfortable. The Wolf Pack present the biggest offensive threat in our league."

On Friday night, UH coach Mike Trapasso said he hoped Costi would give the team six or seven innings so it was a bonus to get eight last night.

"Obviously, it was a strong eight innings," said Trapasso.

The 'Bows (24-23 overall, 11-10 WAC), held hitless the first two innings by Nevada (20-20, 9-9) starter Travis Sutton, erupted for five hits and three runs in the third, the first time UH scored first this weekend.

Dupree doubled to left-center field with one out to get UH going. He took third on Spiers' soft liner to left that dropped for a single. Dupree scored and Spiers took second on Erik Ammon's bunt single up the first-base line.

Spiers moved to third on a wild pitch and scored when Omura was safe at first on a fielder's choice. Thurber's line single to center field advanced Omura to second and he scored on Magana's double to left.

Hawaii added a fourth run in the fifth when Spiers led off with a single to center and went to second on Ammon's sacrifice bunt. Spiers took third on Omura's fly to center and scored when Sutton's first pitch to Thurber was wild.

The 'Bows took a more comfortable 7-0 lead with three runs in the seventh inning.

Dupree ignited the action for a second time with a ground single up the middle and took second on Spiers' ground out.

After Ammon walked, Omura singled to left bringing Dupree home with Ammon stopping at second. Thurber's single to left sent Ammon home and Omura to third from where he scored on Magana's infield single behind the second-base bag.

"This was a huge win for us. It is the difference between being in second place and fourth place. We played well defensively and offensively this weekend," said Trapasso.

The Rainbows have a bye week this coming weekend and resume WAC competition May 12 when they open their final home stand against Fresno State.

Hawaii 8, Nevada 0

Nevada	AB	R	H	BI	Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI
Bowman lf	2	0	0	0	Spiers ss	4	2	2	1
McNeil phˇlf	2	0	1	0	Ammon lf	3	1	1	1
Hayes c	3	0	0	0	Omura 2b	5	2	1	2
Butler cf	4	0	2	0	Thurber dh	4	0	2	1
Mummy 1b	4	0	0	0	Magana 3b	4	0	2	2
Krukow dh	4	0	1	0	Roberts 1b	3	0	0	0
Scobee rf	4	0	0	0	Inouye rf	4	1	1	0
Newman 3b	4	0	1	0	Lopez c	4	0	0	0
Madrid 2b	3	0	1	0	Dupree	4	2	3	0
Marcial ss	3	0	0	0
Totals	33	0	6	0	Totals	35	8	12	7
Nevada			000	000	000	--	0	6	1
Hawaii			003	010	31x	--	8	12	1

E--Marcial (18); Spiers (15). DP--Hawaii 1. LOB--Nevada 8, Hawaii 7. 2B--Butler (12); Newman (5); Magana (12); Dupree (2). SH--Ammon (5). SB--Hayes (6); Madrid (4). CS--Spiers (7).

Nevada	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Sutton (L, 2-4)	6 2/3	8	7	7	3	2
Dorsett	1 1/3	4	1	1	0	1
Hawaii	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Costi (W, 2-4)	8	6	0	0	2	4
Olsen	1	0	0	0	0	0

WP--Sutton (2); Costi (6).
Umpires--Tony Norris (home), Kevin Gillmore (first), Phil Benson (third).
T--2:39. A--2,911.

WAC standings

	Conference				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Rice	13	8	.619	--	32	15
Hawaii	11	10	.524	2	24	23
Nevada	9	9	.500	2 1/2	20	20
San Jose State*	10	10	.500	2 1/2	22	19
Fresno State	8	10	.444	3 1/2	22	25
Louisiana Tech	8	12	.400	3 1/2	16	29

* -- San Jose St. has one nonconference tie

Yesterday
Hawaii 8, Nevada 0
Louisiana Tech 7, San Jose State 6
Rice 10, Fresno State 2
Today
San Jose State at Louisiana Tech