Rainbows swept

Trapasso takes the blame for Hawaii being dominated by No. 12 Wichita State

Hawaii baseball coach Mike Trapasso says this lost weekend is on him.

Of course, it's not his fault the skies opened up Saturday night, causing a rainout that sent the biggest crowd of the season home without a pitch being thrown.

WSU    Hawaii 10-5 4-4 Next Up vs. Chicago State on Thursday

But Trapasso wants to take the blame for the Rainbows getting swept away by Wichita State.

Some of the 1,808 at Les Murakami Stadium for yesterday's doubleheader were returnees from the postponed game. But it wasn't what you'd call two times the pleasure for the UH fans.

The No. 12 Shockers completed their tour of the islands (including two doubleheader sweeps at Hilo) unbeaten, tripping up the Rainbows 10-4 and 5-4. Toss in the 7-1 loss Friday in which UH managed just two hits, and Hawaii is all of a sudden on a three-game losing streak, its longest of the season.

Maybe Wichita State (8-2) is just a better team than UH (9-6). But Trapasso said to point the finger at him.

"It's real simple. We had a good club come in and they exposed what a poor job I've done coaching, having us prepared for this weekend," Trapasso said. "It's really as simple as that. One-hundred percent, this weekend was on me. Not on our players, not on our assistant coaches. I didn't have us ready to play. We're going back to the drawing board (tomorrow, in preparation for five games against Chicago State this week)."

The Rainbows rarely displayed much of a pulse during the series. They did come to life at the end of yesterday's second game, clawing for three runs in the last two innings and nearly salvaging the finale. It didn't have to come to that, though, because UH outhit WSU 13-7. But the Rainbows left 11 on base and lost two other runners to botched hit-and-runs.

"We battled there, but it was a little too late. Anytime you get swept at home it leaves a bitter taste," said first baseman Kris Sanchez, who came out of an 0-for-9 spell to single during both rallies. "They're a great team and you tip your cap, but we feel like we let a couple games slip away this weekend."

Sanchez said there's lots of blame to go around -- for the guys with the bats and gloves.

"You can't place it on coaching," he said. "Coaching prepares you during the week and it's up to hitters and pitchers to get it done once the weekend starts. We didn't make an adjustment and their pitchers did a great job keeping us off-balance all weekend, locating all their off-speed pitches."

Josh Schneider, UH's second-game starter and loser, did some of that, too, retiring 13 Shockers in a row. But that was after WSU scored twice in both the second and third innings, with Tyler Hill singling during both rallies.

Schneider (1-1) said some of his pitches early in the game were too high because he was adjusting to using the slide step to keep the WSU runners close.

"I wasn't used to it, some of the balance points," Schneider said. "I felt like my stride was a little longer and therefore my arm was late and the ball was up."

Tyler Davis relieved Schneider after Derek Schermerhorn doubled to lead off the eighth. Schermerhorn later scored on Conor Gillaspie's groundout for what turned out to be the winning run.

"I don't know whether we got tired, being in the sun all day, or (Schneider) got better," Shockers coach Gene Stephenson said of his hitters' middle-inning malaise. "But we did nothing on him. And that run in the eighth was huge for us."

Evan Zimny hit a bloop double with two outs to score Sanchez and Brandon Haislet in the eighth.

Derek DuPree (5-for-10 for the series) singled to start the ninth. Sanchez's single scored him and put Justin Frash, who had walked, on second with one out. Haislet popped out and Kevin Macdonald (in for second baseman Jon Hee, who aggravated his injured shoulder) flied out to deep center to end it.

In the first game, the Shockers pounded UH starter Mark Rodrigues (4-1) for seven hits in 2 2/3 innings, including Gillaspie's three-run homer.

WSU totaled 16 hits, bunching four in the fifth and three in the eighth for three and two runs off reliever Matt Daly.

UH had struck first, when DuPree led off the first with a double. He scored when Hee reached on an infield single and an error by first baseman Schermerhorn.

Frash -- who also tripled and singled in the second game -- hit a solo homer in the fourth. UH added two in the sixth, thanks to three walks by Shockers starter and winner Aaron Shafer (2-1).