Somewhere lost between a skirmish that led to player ejections, a coach ejection and a delay because lights weren’t working, pitcher Jeff Coleman won his first game as a Rainbow.
Coleman (1-1) pitched seven innings, allowing four hits and five walks with four strikeouts to lead Hawai‘i over Nevada, 5-2, in the Rainbows’ Western Athletic Conference opener last night.
Since the game was not on television or radio, only a get-together crowd of 559 at Rainbow Stadium saw Nevada coach Gary Powers get ejected, witnessed a minor skirmish between UH’s Matthew Purtell and Nevada’s JaRell McIntyre that led to two more ejections and watched both teams extend their respective winning and losing streaks to three.
All of this happened after a 31-minute delay at the start of the game because lights on a pole behind first base had trouble staying on. Stadium officials said the problem was related to the rainy and windy weather. Chief umpire Gary Montalbo said both teams’ coaches determined that the lighting was not adequate enough to start the game.
"I just didn’t have my stuff tonight," said Coleman, who allowed five walks in three previous starts. "A delay is a delay. You can’t do anything about it."
But once the game got started the intensity of both teams could have powered the stadium.
Chad Boudon’s fourth home run of the season with one out in the bottom of the second inning gave UH a 1-0 lead.
The Rainbows (6-4, 1-0 WAC) added two more in the third, first on an RBI single by Patrick Scalabrini and later on a sacrifice fly by Danny Kimura.
But on the play before Kimura batted, Gregg Omori grounded to third baseman Alex Rangel, who fired home for a force to catcher Christian Popoff. But Omori beat Popoff’s throw to first with a head-first slide. Powers argued and was ejected by first base umpire Frank Tomaszewski.
The Wolf Pack (2-8, 1-3) cut their deficit in the top of the fourth on Chris Nickerson’s two out, two-run home run to left center.
Then the game got personal in the UH fifth. With two out, Purtell was caught leaning the wrong way by pitcher Jason Mackintosh (1-2). First baseman McIntyre threw to shortstop Matt Maguire, who fired back to McIntyre who tagged out Purtell to end the inning. Words and shoves were exchanged between Purtell and McIntyre as both benches emptied onto the field. Both players were ejected. UH acting coach Carl Furutani said the fight rule is an automatic one-game suspension.
The incident fired up the Rainbows, Coleman said.
"I came out that inning and I was pumped up," Coleman said. "My first two warmup pitches were high and I was, ‘All right, Jeff, settle down.’ I think that’s when I started to get in a zone. Things like that pick people up, both teams. You just have to be the first one to let it pick you up first."
The series continues at 6:35 tonight with Sean Yamashita pitching for UH against right-hander Darrell Rasner. With Purtell unavailable, Furutani said either Aaron Pribble or Kevin Gilbride, might start at DH.
