Van Doornum gets 'Bows back on track
POSTED: Sunday, May 02, 2010
Perhaps Jeffrey Van Doornum thought he was still in Ruston, La., where he owned hitter-friendly J.C. Love Field last week with four home runs in four games against the Bulldogs.
Hawaii's junior designated hitter certainly hadn't had much success with the long ball in expansive Les Murakami Stadium. Just two of his eight homers for the year had come at home ... and none since the March 6 rout of Citadel.
All that changed with one monster swing yesterday. Van Doornum rocked a 1-2 fastball from Nevada reliever Tyler Graham with two outs in the bottom of the ninth for his first career walk-off home run. His shot—estimated at 400 feet—cleared both fences in left-center, landing on the roadway, and lifting the Rainbows to a dramatic 10-9 victory in the first game of a Western Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader.
In the seven-inning nightcap, Kevin Macdonald drove in the game's only run in the bottom of the second and Hawaii survived a bases-loaded situation in the seventh to edge Nevada 1-0. Matt Sisto (4-4) earned the win, with Connor Little, the fourth UH pitcher, picking up this first save.
The sweep in front of 2,423 moved Hawaii (23-21, 6-9 WAC) out of last place in the conference and into a tie for sixth with Louisiana Tech. Nevada dropped to 23-17-1 and 4-6-1.
“;This was huge for us,”; Rainbows coach Mike Trapasso said. “;We were at rock-bottom going into the ninth (in the opener) and Van Doornum picked us up.
“;In the second, I had just about conceded the tie when we got big plays. We executed, played well. (Matt) Sisto pitched well, sometimes that happens when you don't know you're going to pitch.”;
Sisto, scheduled to start today's 1 p.m. series finale, replaced Nate Klein (elbow injury) in the second. Sisto gave up four hits, two in the seventh, and left with one out.
Blair Walters, the game-win winner, walked the bases full, bringing in Little. Hawaii got a huge second out when catcher Kevin Fujii made a tough play on a foul pop-up from Garrett Yrigoyen and Little got Kamehameha graduate Waylen Sing Chow to swing at a slider to end the game.
“;Give Fujii a lot of credit, he made a lot of big stops tonight,”; Trapasso said. “;And Van Doornum ... you knew that ball was gone the minute it came off the bat.”;
In the opener, Van Doornum finished 3-for-5 with three RBI, with a run-scoring single in the third that helped the Rainbows tie it at 4-4. A two-run fifth put Nevada ahead at 6-4 and Hawaii was chasing the Pack the rest of the way, including trailing 9-5 going into its final at-bat.
Unlike a number of late-inning rallies that had come up short—most recently Friday's 8-4 loss to Nevada—the Rainbows pulled this one out. It started with Kolten Wong's one-out bases-loaded sacrifice fly to center that scored Collin Bennett, and continued with Pi'ikea Kitamura's looping single that landed just inside the first-base line in shallow right, scoring Sean Montplaisir and Matt Roquemore to close the gap to 9-8.
Four pitches later, it was over. The ball was gone before Van Doornum was halfway down to first, making a winner out of Walters (1-1). Hawaii's third reliever pitched a third of an inning, striking out the only Nevada batter he faced—Sing Chow—to end the ninth.
WAC STANDINGS
| Conference | Overall | |||||
| W | L | T | Pct. | GB | Tot. | |
| New Mexico State | 12 | 2 | 1 | .857 | — | 34-12-1 |
| Fresno State | 7 | 5 | 0 | .583 | 4 | 26-19 |
| Sacramento State | 5 | 6 | 0 | .454 | 5 1/2 | 16-23-1 |
| Nevada | 4 | 6 | 1 | .400 | 6 | 23-17-1 |
| Hawaii | 6 | 9 | 0 | .429 | 6 1/2 | 23-21 |
| Louisiana Tech | 6 | 9 | 0 | .429 | 6 1/2 | 21-21 |
| San Jose State | 4 | 7 | 0 | .363 | 6 1/2 | 16-25 |
Yesterday
Hawaii 10, Nevada 9
Hawaii 1, Nevada 0
Sacramento State 7, San Jose State 4
Sacramento State 12, San Jose Stte 3
New Mexico State 16, Louisiana Tech 13
New Mexico State 10, Louisiana Tech 6
Fresno State 15, Dallas Baptist 7
Today
Nevada at Hawaii, 1 p.m., Les Murakami Stadium
Sacramento State at San Jose State
Louisiana Tech at New Mexico State
GAME 1
HAWAII 10, NEVADA 9
| Nevada | AB | R | H | BI | Hawaii | AB | R | H | BI | |
| Rodland ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Wong 2b | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Moss cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Kitamura 3b | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | |
| Kort 1b | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Brackenridge pr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Barnett rf | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Van Doornum dh | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| Melino dh | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Freitas c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Leid lf | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Garcia ss | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Sing Chow lf | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Bennett cf | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kohan 2b | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Montplaisir lf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mahoney 2b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Macdonald | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Yrigoyen 3b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Roquemore rf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Escobar c | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Mitchell ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 34 | 9 | 10 | 7 | Totals | 35 | 10 | 11 | 9 |
| Nevada | 040 | 020 | 012 | — | 9 | 10 | 3 |
| Hawaii | 202 | 010 | 005 | — | 10 | 11 | 3 |
E—Escobar 2, Rodland. Garcia, Bennett, Macdonald. LOB—Nevada 6, Hawaii 3. 2B—Melino, Leid. HR—Melino. Van Doornum. HBP—Montplaisir. SH—Mahoney, Yrigoyen. SF—Mahoney. Wong. SB—Wong 2, Kitamura, Van Doornum. CS—Moss. Wong, Garcia.
| Nevada | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |
| Jameson | 7 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| Graham L (2-4) | 1 2/3 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Hawaii | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |
| Spangler | 4 1/3 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | |
| Moore | 2 2/3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Linsky | 1 2/3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |
| Walters W (1-1) | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
WP—Graham. Linsky. HBP—by Graham (Montplaisir. PB—Freitas 2.
Umpires—Jim Garman (Plate); Larry Randall (First); Tim Vessey (Third).
T—3:14.
GAME 2
HAWAII 1, NEVADA 0
| Nevada | AB | R | H | BI | Hawaii | AB | R | H | BI | |
| Rodland ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Wong 2b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Moss cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Kitamura 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kort 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Van Doornum rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Melino dh | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Freitas dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Barnett rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Garcia ss | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mahoney 2b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Bennett cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Yrigoyen 3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Montplaisir lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sing Chow lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Macdonald 1b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Turay c | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Fujii c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mitchell ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Escobar c | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 24 | 0 | 4 | 0 | Totals | 20 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Nevada | 000 | 000 | 0 | — | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Hawaii | 010 | 000 | x | — | 1 | 3 | 0 |
DP—Nevada 1. LOB—Nevada 5. Hawaii 3. 2B—Kort. HBP—Yrigoyen. SB—Garcia, Macdonald. CS—Mahoney.
| Nevada | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |
| Cole L (3-1) | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| Hawaii | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |
| Klein | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sisto W (4-4) | 5 1/3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
| Walters | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Little | 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
HBP—by Sisto (Yrigoyen).
Umpires—Larry Randall (Plate); Tim Vessey (First); Jim Garman(Third).
T—1:52. A—2,423
