Costi keeps Rainbows winning in Louisiana

He wins for the seventh time in eight decisions

RUSTON, La. » Justin Costi shut out Louisiana Tech for eight innings and his Hawaii Rainbow teammates provided ample run support last night in the second of four Western Athletic Conference baseball games at J.C. Love Field.

Hawaii   LaTech 9 2 Next up vs. LaTech (2), today

Eli Christensen belted a two-run homer over the center-field wall to put UH ahead in the second inning. The 'Bows (35-12 overall, 12-6 WAC) then kept lighting up the scoreboard en route to a 9-2 victory.

"Eli got the big hit to get things going for us. He has been clutch for us with big hits recently. He is seeing the ball well and that's what we need," said UH coach Mike Trapasso.

Christensen said he was looking for a fastball on the second pitch from LaTech starter Jericho Jones.

"He (Jones) has two different fastballs. One is hard and the other he takes a little off to try to get more movement. That's what he threw, but he left it up," Christensen said of his drive that cleared the wall 385 feet from home plate.

Hawaii scored two more runs in the fourth on Kris Sanchez's run-scoring single to center and Jon Hee's squeeze bunt that brought Christensen home.

The 'Bows increased their lead to 6-0 in the fifth, with some help from the Bulldogs (28-20, 9-10), with two outs.

Matt Inouye, on base via a fielder's choice, took third on Esteban Lopez's double down the left-field line. Inouye scored and Lopez advanced to third on a throwing error by third baseman Ryan Hamilton on Christensen's grounder.

Lopez came home on a passed ball charged to catcher Mims Boyce.

Costi's only troublesome moment through the first seven innings came in the third when LaTech had runners at second and third with one out. The senior right-hander bore down and struck out the No. 2 and No. 3 hitters, Patrick Thomas and Jones.

With two down in the sixth, Derek DuPree was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a passed ball and scored on Justin Frash's single to center.

UH's two runs in the ninth also scored after two were out, with Lopez crossing the plate with the ninth run on Christensen's double to center.

LaTech loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth. After a visit from Trapasso, Costi fanned Albie Goulder, but he lost the shutout on Matt Lacy's fielder's choice grounder that scored Nick Grunenwald.

When pinch hitter Ben Tabor flared a single to center, scoring Hamilton, Trapasso went to the bullpen for Jeff Soskin, who had not appeared in a game since March 4.

The junior left-hander needed four pitches to strike out pinch hitter Brady Bascle and end the game.

"Jeff threw strikes and threw a good slider down and in to end the game. He gave us what we needed," said Trapasso, who will have a fresh bullpen for today's games.

Costi won for the seventh time in eight decisions. He threw first-pitch strikes 27 out of 36 times and two of his first three pitches were strikes 46 out of 65 times. Eighty of Costi's 126 pitches were strikes.

"Justin just stayed within himself and used all three pitches (fastball, curve, changeup). Very few times did he try to do too much and overthrow," Trapasso said. "Being on the road before a hostile crowd, it really was a mature effort on his part."

The road trip concludes today with a split doubleheader. The first game is at 7 a.m., with the second set for 1 p.m. Hawaii time.

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