Vulcans break through against ’Bows

STORY SUMMARY »

Hawaii-Hilo fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The streak is over.

UH-Hilo: 4 Hawaii: 3 NEXT UP vs. San Francisco on Friday

Shane Kessel hit a two-run double and Kekoa Lee and three relievers combined to hold Hawaii to just five hits as the Vulcans ended a 15-game losing skid to Hawaii with a 4-3 victory yesterday at Les Murakami Stadium.

Michael Higa went 2-for-3 for the Vulcans and finished the series 7-for-10 with four runs scored.

Jon Hee reached base in all five plate appearances for the Rainbows, who did not have a batter record a multi-hit game in the entire series.

Freshman Alex Capaul was impressive in his UH debut before surrendering four runs in the fourth inning.

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Hilo holds on, snaps series skid at 15

Hawaii-Hilo refused to give this one away.

Sophomore Shane Kessel's two-run double capped a four-run fourth inning and reliever Dustin Gilmore shut down Hawaii over the final two innings as the Vulcans defeated the Rainbows 4-3 yesterday in the baseball series finale at Les Murakami Stadium.

A crowd of 1,667 saw UH-Hilo (1-2) end a 15-game losing streak to its rival from Manoa.

"That's the best feeling right now," Kessel said. "I can't even say how happy we are."

The Vulcans battled the Rainbows (2-1) all series, but came up short the previous two days, including a heart-breaking extra-inning loss on Friday in which UH-Hilo let leads in the ninth and 10th innings slip away.

The Vulcans led 4-2 going into the bottom of the seventh when reliever Jesse Moon walked the leadoff man and then drilled consecutive batters with pitches to load the bases. Jeffrey Germain replaced Moon and gave up a sacrifice fly to Brandon Haislet before hitting Kevin Macdonald to load the bases.

The Rainbows had played spoilers all weekend long, but their inability to cash in with runners on base finally caught up to them as Jeffrey Van Doornum lined out to second to end the inning.

Hawaii left nine men on base and hit into three double plays, including two to end innings with at least two men on base. The Rainbows did not have a batter with a multi-hit game in the entire series.

"If we go out there and get five hits in a game we're going to lose most of them," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "We've got to play less tentative and swing with a little less fear."

UH-Hilo walked six batters and hit four more, including Jon Hee with one out in the ninth. It was Gilmore's only blemish in the final two innings, however, and he came back to retire Shane Hoey and strike out Haislet to end it.

"We have a different mentality this year," said Kessel, who finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs. "We know we can compete with anybody and that's what we're going to do."

Freshman Alex Capaul made his first start for Hawaii and needed just 30 pitches to breeze through the first three innings, facing only one batter over the minimum.

The fourth inning proved to be the troubling one, as Thomas Brown and Michael Higa led off with singles. Brown came around to score on a wild pitch by Capaul and Dayne Ogawa blasted a one-hopper over the wall in left for a ground-rule double that scored Higa. Two batters later, Kessel laced a 3-2 pitch to right to score two more runs.

"We finally got that hit," UH-Hilo coach Joey Estrella said. "(Kessel) is a clutch hitter. I know he's going to put the ball in play. We executed well that inning."

Vulcans starter Kekoa Lee pitched 5 1/3 innings to pick up the win. The freshman left-hander gave up two hits and four walks, but got out of jams when he needed to.

Hawaii took a 1-0 lead on Hoey's one-out RBI single in the third that scored Kevin Fujii, who led off with a walk. With runners on first and second, Haislet battled Lee in a 10-pitch at-bat before grounding into the inning-ending double play.

"We kind of maybe let the first game get away on us, but we learned from that," Estrella said. "The Rainbows are a good hitting team and we did battle and battle, so we feel good for the kids."

Hawaii concludes its season-opening homestand with a four-game series against San Francisco beginning Friday at 6:35 p.m.

Hawaii-Hilo 4, Hawaii 3

UHH	AB	R	H	BI	Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI
Trias lf	4	0	0	0	Hee 2b	1	0	1	0
Brown ss	4	1	1	0	Hoey dh	4	0	1	1
Higa 2b	3	1	2	0	Haislet cf	4	0	1	1
Satele 1b	4	0	0	0	Macdonald 1b	3	0	0	0
Rodgers c	3	1	2	0	Van Doornum rf	4	0	0	0
Ogawa cf	4	1	1	1	Roquemore rf	0	0	0	0
Manago rf	4	0	0	0	Catricala 3b	3	0	1	0
Kessel 3b	4	0	2	2	Montplaisir lf	4	1	1	0
Zimmermann dh	3	0	1	0	Fujii	1	1	0	1
Obed ph	1	0	0	0	DuPree	0	1	0	0
Hernandez c	1	0	0	0	Young ss	0	0	0	0
Garcia ph	1	0	0	0
Totals	34	4	9	3	Totals	26	3	5	3

UHH	000	400	000	--	4	9	0
Hawaii	001	010	100	--	3	5	0

E--none. DP--UHH 3, Hawaii 1. LOB--UHH 5, Hawaii 9. 2B--Higa; Ogawa; Kessel. 3b--Montplaisir. HBP--Rodgers; Hee 2; Hoey; Macdonald. SH--Young 2. SF--Haislet. SB--Rodgers. CS--Rodgers.

UHH	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Lee (W 1-0)	5 1/3	5	2	2	4	2
Moon	1	0	1	1	2	0
Germain	2/3	0	0	0	0	0
Gilmore	2	0	0	0	0	1
Hawaii	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Capaul (L 0-1)	5	6	4	4	1	2
Slaats	2 1/3	2	0	0	0	1
Schneider	1 2/3	1	0	0	0	2

WP--Lee. Loss--Capaul. Save--Gilmore. HBP--by Capaul (Rodgers); by Moon (hee); by Moon (Hoey); by Germain (Macdonald); by Gilmore (Hee).

Umpires-- Dan Farnsworth(plate); Ryan Arasato(first).

T--2:46. A--1,667.