Rainbows drop Rice
to stay in hunt

Bryant and Wright hold the Owls
to just four runs

The Hawaii Rainbows kept their Western Athletic Conference baseball title hopes alive with a 7-4 win over the Rice Owls last night in Houston.

Hawaii 7 Rice 4 Next Up at Rice, 9 a.m.

Steve Bryant and Stephen Wright combined to hold No. 12 Rice to six hits and struck out 12 Owls in the first of three games at Reckling Park.

Esteban Lopez and Derek Dupree, the eight and nine hitters, had key roles in the 'Bows' three scoring innings, setting the stage for the three-run fifth and sixth innings.

The clutch hits came from Isaac Omura in the fifth and Erik Ammon in the sixth.

Bryant, who has battled a blister on the big toe of his right foot the past three weeks, gave UH 6 2/3 solid innings. He walked one and fanned eight. The senior right-hander was replaced by Wright after Clay Reichenbach hit a two-run homer to cut the Rice deficit to 7-4 in the seventh inning.

"Steve made two bad pitches all night. That (Reichenbach) was the last hitter he was going to face either way," said UH coach Mike Trapasso. "Steve was tired. It was hot, felt like a thousand degrees out there, but he gutted it for us for seven innings."

Bryant said he was a little bit tired when he came out of the game, that the blister is pretty much healed up and he had three pitches working.

"We stayed away from them. I had good location with the fastball in and out and we used the changeup to get ahead," said Bryant, who won his eighth game, equaling last year's total. "The curveball was the strikeout pitch, as it always is."

Wright was perfect in earning his fourth save of the season. The sophomore right-hander retired all seven Owls he faced.

"Steven was good at being down in the zone and throwing strikes. He was throwing so many darn strikes he kept ahead of the hitters and had a good slider when he got ahead," said Trapasso.

Rice (36-17 overall, 16-9 WAC) took a 1-0 lead in the second when Adam Rodgers led off with his sixth home run of the season on the first pitch from Bryant.

Hawaii (26-25, 13-12) came right back to tie the score in the top of the third. Matt Inouye walked and took second on a balk by Rice starter Josh Geer. Lopez moved Inouye to third with a single off Geer's leg. Dupree then beat out a bunt single when Owls first baseman Joe Savery hesitated on trying for Inouye, who scored, or throwing to first.

The 'Bows took a 4-1 lead in the fifth that began with a Lopez single to right center and a walk to Dupree.

Joe Spiers was safe at first on his sacrifice bunt when Geer bobbled the ball, loading the bases. Josh Rodriguez then bobbled Ammon's potential double-play grounder to short, allowing Lopez to score and leaving the bases loaded.

Omura followed by stroking a 3-1 pitch to right field, scoring Dupree and Spiers.

"Esteban had a great day, his first four-hit game, and Derek just did a good job of executing," said Trapasso.

Hawaii increased its lead to 7-1 in the sixth. Lopez and Dupree got the action going with one-out singles to right and moved up a base when Spiers grounded to second.

Ammon brought both runners home with a two-out single up the middle on a one-strike pitch from Geer.

The third-place 'Bows moved to within three games of first-place Rice with five games left in the regular season.

Second-place Fresno State closed to within two games of Rice with a 12-1 win over Louisiana Tech last night.

Note: Omura, with a 12-game hitting streak, and Savery, riding a 22-game hitting streak, are the top two hitters in the WAC. Savery starts today's 9 a.m. (Hawaii time) game at .389 (68-for-175). Omura is batting .384 (73-for-190).

WAC standings

	Conference				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Rice	16	9	.640	--	36	17
Fresno State	14	11	.560	2	28	26
Hawaii	13	12	.520	3	26	25
San Jose State*	12	13	.480	4	27	24
Nevada	11	14	.440	5	22	26
Louisiana Tech	9	16	.360	7	17	35

* -- San Jose St. has one nonconference tie

Yesterday
Hawaii 7, Rice 4
Fresno State 12, Louisiana Tech 1
San Jose State 10, Nevada 1
Today
Hawaii at Rice, 9 a.m. HST
Nevada at San Jose State
Louisiana Tech at Fresno State

Hawaii 7, Rice 4

Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI	Rice	AB	R	H	BI
Spiers ss	3	1	0	0	Henley cf	4	0	0	0
Ammon lf	5	1	1	3	Buchanan 2b	3	1	1	0
Omura 2b	4	0	2	3	Savery 1blf	4	0	1	0
Thurber dh	3	0	0	0	Rodgers dh1b	3	1	1	2
Magana 3b	5	0	0	0	Hale lfrf	4	0	0	0
Roberts 1b	5	0	1	0	Rodriguez ss	4	0	1	0
Avila 1b	0	0	0	0	Lehmann c	4	1	1	0
Inouye rf	4	1	0	0	Pendleton rfp	3	0	0	0
Lopez c	4	2	4	0	Reichenbach 3b	3	1	1	2
Dupree cf	3	2	2	1
Totals	36	7	10	7	Totals	32	4	6	4
Hawaii		001	033	000	--	7	10	1
Rice		010	001	200	--	4	6	3

E--Spiers (19); Rodriguez (6); Pendleton (2); Geer (2). DP--Hawaii 1, Rice 1. LOB--Hawaii 9, Rice 3. 2B--Roberts (8); Savery (16); Rodriguez (10); Lehmann (14). 3B--Omura (2). HR--Rodgers (6); Reichenbach (2). SH--Spiers 2 (7). SF--Rodgers (7). SB--Buchanan (4).

Hawaii	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Bryant (W, 8-3)	6 2/3	6	4	4	1	8
Wright (S, 4)	2 1/3	0	0	0	0	4
Rice	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Geer (L, 9-4)	5 2/3	8	7	6	5	2
McDaniel	2 1/3	1	0	0	0	1
Pendleton	1	1	0	0	0	2

WP--Bryant (9). BK--Geer (3). PB--Lehmann (4).
Umpires--David Wiley (home), Bob Charmo (first), John DeLuca (third).
T--2:31. A--2,782.