Hawaii rallies to defeat
Louisiana Tech

Esteban Lopez and Schafer Magana delivered key singles in a three-run ninth-inning rally to help Hawaii defeat Louisiana Tech 7-4 in a Western Athletic Conference baseball game yesterday in Ruston, La.

UH coach Mike Trapasso stated emphatically after Friday's win and before yesterday's second game of the series that the Rainbows needed to get six or seven innings out of starting pitcher Justin Costi.

The junior right-hander went 6 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and all four LaTech runs. Rich Olsen came in to close the game with 2 2/3 innings of hitless relief.

"Justin was very solid today and we needed to have that," said Trapasso. "Rich came in and his curveball was dropping in for strikes every time."

After the Bulldogs tied the score at 4-4 in the seventh, Olsen ended the inning with two strikeouts.

A throwing error by third baseman Magana on Ryan Hamilton's slow roller put a runner at second with one out in the eighth. Olsen got two groundball outs to end the inning.

Trapasso had a talk with Olsen after a one-out walk to Richard Heard in the ninth.

"I just told Rich he has to finish the game. He has to smell it. I told him to want it to end the way he wants it to, not just hope that it will happen. I told him to take care of business and he did," said Trapasso.

Heard, rarely used this year and 0-for-4 at the plate coming into the game, gave LaTech (17-39 overall, 9-20- WAC) a 3-0 lead in the second when he lofted Costi's first offering over the right-field wall with Hamilton and Gil Laird on base.

The Rainbows (28-27, 15-14) finally got to LaTech starter Matt Lacy in the sixth inning.

Lopez singled to left with one out and scored on Magana's second homer of the season, a high fly that cleared the wall in left. Nate Thurber followed with another single to left and, with two outs, Adam Roberts crushed a ball over the center-field fence for his second homer of the season.

The three-run UH ninth started with a couple of balls that did not go far.

Derek Dupree's cue-stick nubber toward short went for an infield single. He took second on Joe Spiers' sacrifice.

Greg Kish's check-swing squibber up the first-base line was misplayed by Heard for an error. LaTech coach Wade Simoneaux elected to intentionally walk Isaac Omura to load the bases and set up a force play at any base.

Lopez foiled the strategy by hitting a 1-2 pitch to center for an RBI single. Magana stroked an RBI single to left on a 3-1 pitch for the second run and Matt Inouye walked on a 3-1 pitch to force in the third run.

Note: When Rice clinched the title Friday, it was the ninth WAC title, but the 10th consecutive league title for the Owls, who won the Southwest Conference crown in the final year of that league's existence.

WAC standings

	Conference				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
a-Rice	20	9	.690	--	40	17
Fresno State	16	13	.552	4	30	28
Hawaii	15	14	.517	5	28	27
Nevada	14	15	.483	6	25	27
San Jose State*	13	16	.448	7	28	27
Louisiana Tech	9	20	.310	11	17	39

* -- San Jose St. has one nonconference tie
a -- Clinched conference title
Yesterday
Hawaii 7, Louisiana Tech 4
Rice 4, San Jose State 2
Nevada 5, Fresno State 1
Today
Hawaii at Louisiana Tech, 8 a.m. HST
San Jose State at Rice
Fresno State at Nevada
End regular season

Hawaii 7, Louisiana Tech 4

Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI	Rice	AB	R	H	BI
Spiers ss	4	0	2	0	Haygood 2b	5	0	0 0
Kish lf	5	1	1	0	Hudson lf	4	0	1	0
Omura 2b	4	1	1	0	Tabor dh	4	0	0	0
Lopez c	5	1	2	1	Hamilton 3b	4	1	1	0
Magana 3b	4	1	2	3	Laird rf	3	1	1	0
Thurber dh	5	1	1	0	McCarthy 1b	3	0	0	0
Inouye rf	3	0	0	1	Bascle cf	3	0	1	0
Roberts 1b	4	1	1	2	Rike pr/cf	1	1 0	0
Dupree cf	4	1	1	0	Heard c	3	1	1	3
					Ramon pr	0	0 0	0
			Holik ss	4	0	1	1
Totals	38	7	11	7	Totals	34	4	6	4
Hawaii			000	004	003	--	7	11	2
Louisiana Tech		030	000	10x	--	4	6	1

E--Magana 2 (9) Heard (1). LOB--UH 10, LT 6. HR--Magana (2), Roberts (2), Heard (1). SH--Spiers (9). SB--Magana (2), Holik (9). CS--Haygood (3).

Hawaii	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Costi	6 1/3	6	4	4	1	6
Olsen (W, 1-0)	2 2/3	0	0	0	1	3
Louisiana Tech	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Lacy	6	8	4	4	0	10
Alverson (L,, 2-3)	3 1/3	1	3	1	3	3
Alsup	1/3	2	0	0	1	1
Knotts	1/3	0	0	0	0	1

HBP--Costi (8). HBP--by Costi (Laird), by Lacy (Roberts).
Umpires--Greg Oros (plate), Keith Bailey (first), Chris Magouirk (third).
T--2:39. A--441.