No. 20 Hawaii sits alone in first
POSTED: Saturday, April 25, 2009
No. 20 Hawaii took over sole possession of first place in the Western Athletic Conference by hanging on to defeat New Mexico State 12-10 yesterday at Presley Askew Field in Las Cruces, N.M.
Sean Montplaisir went 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs and Kevin Macdonald and Vinnie Catricala hit big homers late as the Rainbows (25-14, 8-4) needed every last run against a stubborn Aggies squad.
“;Our guys knew that coming in that it didn't matter how many runs we were scoring, runs are going to be scored in this ballpark,”; Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “;(NMSU) is legit. I'm very impressed with them, and yet at the same time I'm so proud of our kids for battling, because we won that game on grit and toughness.”;
Macdonald's solo home run in the eighth inning, his team-leading ninth of the season, put Hawaii up 9-7, but the Aggies answered with a run in the bottom of the inning to cut the deficit to one run.
Then in the ninth, Montplaisir scored Ryan Morford on a two-out double to push Hawaii's lead to two. After a pitching change, Catricala met reliever Frankie Duran with a two-run homer to give the Rainbows a 12-8 lead.
It wound up being the decisive blow, as Wade Reynoso hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off of Sam Spangler to make it a 12-10 game. But Spangler came back to strike out the final two batters of the game to earn his fourth save.
Jayson Kramer (4-3) picked up his second consecutive win, throwing 105 pitches in six innings. He issued five walks and hit two batters, and overcame four quick Aggies runs to gut out six innings and nearly came back out to pitch the seventh despite the high pitch count.
“;I really considered it, but we were getting into the fourth time through their lineup,”; Trapasso said. “;(Kramer) was showing some body language that he hasn't shown in a while, but he snapped out of it and gutted his way through.”;
WAC Standings
| Conference | Overall |
|||||
| W | L | Pct. | GB | W-L |
||
| Hawaii | 8 | 4 | .667 | — | 25-14 | |
| Nevada | 7 | 4 | .636 | 1/2 | 19-20 | |
| San Jose State | 5 | 4 | .556 | 1 1/2 | 27-13 | |
| New Mexico State | 7 | 6 | .538 | 1 1/2 | 32-9 | |
| Louisiana Tech | 5 | 8 | .385 | 3 1/2 | 20-17 | |
| Sacramento State | 3 | 6 | .333 | 3 1/2 | 22-17 | |
| Fresno State | 3 | 6 | .333 | 3 1/2 | 19-20 |
Yesterday
Hawaii 12, New Mexico State 10
Sacramento State 8, Louisiana Tech 7
Fresno State 1, San Jose State 0
Nevada 7, Cal State Bakersfield 6
Today
Hawaii at New Mexico State (2), 11:05 a.m.
Fresno State at San Jose State (2)
Louisiana Tech at Sacramento State
Cal State Bakersfield at Nevada
Hawaii 12, NMSU 10
| Hawaii | AB | R | H | BI | NMSU | AB | R | H | BI |
| Garcia ss | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Farnham c/lf | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Montplaisir lf | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Shaver rf | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Catricala 3b | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | Sodders dh | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Macdonald 1b | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Marquez ss | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Wong cf | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Aguirre lf | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Hernandez c | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Perkins pr/cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Johnson rf | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Harty 1b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Van Doornum dh | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | Reynoso 3b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Morford 2b | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 | Schneider 2b | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Howard ph/c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Lucero cf/2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Anderson ph | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Totals | 43 | 12 | 17 | 11 | Totals | 35 | 10 | 14 | 10 |
| Hawaii | 320 | 102 | 013 | — | 12 | 17 | 1 |
|
| NMSU | 130 | 100 | 212 | — | 10 | 14 | 2 |
E—Montplaisir; Reynoso; Lucero. DP—Hawaii 3; NMSU 1. LOB—Hawaii 10; NMSU 9. 2B—Garcia; Montplaisir; Van Doornum; Morford 2; FARNHAM. 3B—Wong. HR—Montplaisir; Catricala; Macdonald; Reynoso. HBP—Montplaisir; Catricala; Morford; Harty; Lucero. SH - Schneider. SF—Garcia; Shaver.
| Hawaii | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|
| Kramer (W, 4-3) | 6 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | |
| Moore | 1/3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Spangler (S, 4) | 2 2/3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | |
| NMSU | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|
| Sturdevant (L, 4-4) | 5 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | |
| Cooper | 2/3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Coffman | 1 1/3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| Reyes | 1 2/3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | |
| Duran | 1/3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Umpires—Jason Venzon (Plate); Patrick Riley (First); Dave Natalie (Third).
T—3:10. A—526.
