Rainbows sweep Hornets and take over WAC lead

Harrington’s complete game and Avila's homer put Hawaii atop the league by a half-game

The Hawaii Rainbows celebrated Senior Sunday yesterday by finishing a sweep of their three-game Western Athletic Conference baseball series against Sacramento State.

Hawaii   Sac. State 5 2 Next Up at Grambling St., tomorrow

A revitalized Ian Harrington pitched a complete game and Luis Avila delivered the big hit in the 5-2 win before a crowd of 2,234 at Les Murakami Stadium.

The victory moved Hawaii (32-12, 10-6) a half-game ahead of Fresno State atop the conference standings. The Bulldogs did not play in conference this weekend.

Harrington, a junior left-hander, struggled in his previous two starts. Earlier this week UH coach Mike Trapasso said he wanted to make sure Harrington was completely recovered from the flu before assigning him yesterday's start.

"I've been in a little slump of late, but you don't leave a pitch up in the zone because you have a cough," Harrington said.

"I knew it was possible I wouldn't start this week. When I found out I was, I knew I had to focus and help the team win and sweep the series.

"We are not only fighting for first place, but for momentum heading on the road."

Knowing the Hornets were aggressive, early-count hitters, Harrington mixed his fastball and curve well with yesterday's bread-and-butter pitch, the changeup.

Harrington did not walk a batter and struck out three, including the final two Hornets.

"Ian just had command of all his pitches. He kept the ball down and got ahead in the count," said senior catcher Esteban Lopez, who singled twice and scored two runs in his final home game.

The Rainbows put the first run of the game on the board in the second inning.

Lopez singled to deep short and continued to second on Everet Rincon's throwing error. Lopez moved to third on Eli Christensen's groundout and scored on Jorge Franco's double to left field.

The Hornets (20-27, 8-10) tied the score in the top of the third. Rincon lined a one-out single to center, the second hit off Harrington.

Franco and Christensen collided after Gary Johnson hit a fly ball to short left. Franco was charging in and Christensen racing out when the two ran into each other.

The ball dropped for a double, with Rincon holding at third and later scoring on a balk.

Christensen was able to continue, but Franco left the game and had stitches to close a cut on his left knee.

Robbie Wilder opened the bottom of the inning with a single to left and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Then, on successive pitches with one down, Sacramento State starter John Schlager hit Justin Frash with an inside fastball and served up a ball that Avila deposited over the center-field wall for a three-run homer. It was Avila's sixth homer and upped his team-leading RBI total to 44.

The 'Bows added their fifth run in the sixth inning.

Lopez grounded a single to center on the first pitch. He took second when Derek DuPree walked and came home on Jon Hee's single to right-center.

"This homestand was huge for us. We didn't play well in two games last week, but still won one. I never thought we would sweep Sacramento State because they were playing so well," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "This was the best defensive series of the year.

"We're not hitting on all cylinders, but we got a couple big hits. We got the early lead, but only scored one run after that. In this league, in the parks we'll be playing in the rest of the season, you have to be relentless and keep scoring."

The Rainbows left last night for Louisiana. They start a five-game road trip at Grambling State (5-34) tomorrow. The Tigers ended a 24-game losing streak Saturday with a win over Texas Southern, then won again yesterday.

The important games for UH are at Louisiana Tech. The teams will make up the March 19 rained-out game on Thursday with the Rainbows as the home team.

The regular three-game series starts with a single game Friday night followed by a day/night doubleheader Saturday.

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