RAINBOW BASEBALL
Weather cancels
Rainbows’ last game
UH finishes with its best
WAC record since 1999
The Hawaii baseball team's final game of the season was canceled yesterday due to the weather in Ruston, La.
The Rainbows won the first two games against Louisiana Tech to take the Western Athletic Conference series and win the season series with the Bulldogs 3-2.
Several areas of J.C. Love Field were quite muddy from an overnight rain and more rain was in the forecast.
UH coach Mike Trapasso and LaTech coach Wade Simoneaux met with the umpires an hour before the 8 a.m. Hawaii time start and decided to cancel.
"We weren't going to take batting practice and arrived at the field about an hour before the game. They hadn't covered the field and it was unplayable," Trapasso said.
"It would have taken them a couple of hours to get the field ready and thunderstorms were forecast. Sure enough, as we were driving back to Shreveport, La., we got more rain."
The Rainbows finish the 2005 campaign with a 28-27 overall record and their first winning season (15-14) in WAC play since the 1999 team went 15-14.
Hawaii, picked to finish fourth in league play in the coaches preseason poll, ends up in third place, a half-game behind Fresno State. Nevada completed a three-game sweep of FSU with a 20-7 thrashing yesterday.
The third-place finish is the highest for the 'Bows since Hawaii won the WAC in 1992.
Because of the heavy holiday travel, the 'Bows returning to Honolulu won't arrive until tomorrow afternoon on Continental flight 3 from Los Angeles.