By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
There were no ninth-inning heroics for the University of Hawai‘i baseball team yesterday.
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| The Wolf Pack’s Clay Belding fouls a bunt attempt in the first inning. Belding, Nevada’s center fielder and lead-off hitter, went 1-for-5 with a run scored in his team’s 6-4 win over the Rainbows yesterday.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser |
JaRell McIntyre’s three-run home run in a five-run sixth inning — the first of his two homers — brought the Rainbows down to earth in Nevada’s 6-4 win in Western Athletic Conference baseball.
The Wolf Pack (3-9, 2-4 WAC) averted a sweep and snapped a four-game slide, while the Rainbows (7-5, 2-1) saw their four-game win streak stopped before 794 at Rainbow Stadium.
It wasn’t the way the Rainbows hoped to conclude their homestand before a seven-game road trip with a nonconference game Wednesday at Sacramento State and WAC series Saturday through Feb. 26 at Fresno State and March 1-3 at San Jose State. But team captain Wakon Childers said the Rainbows are resilient.
"I think we’re going to be all right," Childers said. "This is a real good team, one of the best I’ve been around in three years. To tell you the truth, it’s going to do us some good to get off the Rock for a little while, play some ball on the Mainland. I don’t think this loss will have an effect on (the team). It’s a good team."
The Rainbows took a 2-0 lead into the top of the sixth, when the Wolf Pack scored five runs, four off UH starter Chad Giannetti (1-1). He allowed three consecutive singles before Tony Cappuccilli’s two-run double tied the game and ended the day for Giannetti, who gave up four runs and seven hits in five-plus innings in his second start of the season.
Childers came in to face McIntyre, who served his one-game suspension along with UH’s Matthew Purtell Friday for their Thursday scuffle. Childers got ahead 0-2 and just missed the corner on the third pitch. But Childers said he hung a slider on the next pitch and the right-handed hitting McIntyre hit an opposite-field three-run home run to give the Wolf Pack a 5-2 lead.
"He had two strikes on me, so I was just trying to hit the ball the other way," McIntyre said.
Said Childers: "I came back with my best pitch, the slider, and he got it good."
But McIntyre wasn’t through with the Rainbows. He led off the eighth inning against left-handed reliever Aaron Pribble. In a 12-pitch at-bat, McIntyre fouled off seven pitches — all fastballs, he said — before crushing a 3-2 fastball for a home run to right center to make it 6-4.
"It was a good battle," McIntyre said. "He kept coming at me, I kept coming at him. I won that time."
McIntyre doubled in his first at-bat and finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs to help starter Mateo Miramontes (2-1), who allowed four runs (three earned), six hits and four walks in 6 2/3 innings. Jason Price pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings for his second save of the season.
The Rainbows got off on the right foot in the second inning, then literally stumbled out of a potential big inning. A Kevin Gilbride single, Tim Montgomery double and Cortland Wilson walk loaded the bases. Arthur Guillen then grounded a two-run single to center to put runners at first and second with no outs.
With Purtell batting, Wilson got picked off second. He lost his footing when he saw Miramontes turn, making for an easy pickoff.
After Purtell popped out to shortstop, Guillen stole second with Patrick Scalabrini batting. On a 3-0 count, Miramontes caught Guillen off second to end the inning.
"Art was trying to be aggressive and was caught between steps," UH acting coach Carl Furutani said.
It was that kind of day for the Rainbows.
The team leaves for California tomorrow. Since Sacramento State is a nonconference midweek game, all three UH starters — Jeff Coleman, Sean Yamashita and Giannetti — will pitch at least an inning with the relievers finishing the game, Furutani said.
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