Bobbles prove costly as Rainbows fall to TCU
Advertiser Staff
Texas Christian took advantage of numerous Hawai'i miscues to rally for a 5-4 Western Athletic Conference baseball victory yesterday.
The Rainbows (18-21, 8-15 WAC) wasted a strong pitching performance by starter Sean Yamashita (2-6) because of four official errors and possibly three other scoring decisions at TCU Diamond in Fort Worth, Texas.
"We probably should've had seven errors," said UH acting coach Carl Furutani, making reference to the official scoring decisions. "Sean pitched a hell of a game. We just didn't make the plays."
Justin Crowder (5-3), who allowed three runs and seven hits in eight-plus innings, was the beneficiary of a four-run eighth by the Horned Frogs (24-17, 14-8 WAC), who trailed 2-1 to that point. In the inning, the Rainbows committed their fourth error of the game and were charged with a balk that scored a run.
Yamashita pitched 7¡ innings, allowing five runs, two unearned, and seven hits. His command was such that the three errors committed earlier and a double lost in the sun only led to one run.
The Rainbows took a 2-0 lead in the third on a two-run single by Patrick Scalabrini. But a bloop triple to right and a UH error during a rundown between third and home cut TCU's deficit in half.
Nursing a 2-1 lead entering the eighth, Yamashita got leadoff hitter Terry Trofholz to ground out to shortstop. But Rudy Rivera reached on second baseman Gregg Omori's fielding error. After a wild pitch, Erick Macha reached first on a bloop single to right. As Rivera stopped at third, right fielder Tim Montgomery threw above the cutoff man, easily allowing Macha to take second. Tom Bates' two-run single gave TCU the lead 3-2.
Walter Olmstead followed with a single to move Bates to third and chase Yamashita for Bryan Lee. With Jonathan Marshall batting, Lee balked. Furutani said Lee apparently did not come to a complete stop while in the stretch position. Furutani said the umpires were not making that call all game long until then.
With a runner at second, Marshall's RBI single to right made it 5-2. Jason Price followed with a single to right, but this time Montgomery hit the cutoff man, first baseman Danny Kimura, who fired to home to nail pinch-runner Kenny Thompson at the plate. Mike Settle hit a soft lineout to second to end the inning.
The Rainbows weren't ready to fold yet. Jacob Flick opened the ninth with a single that led to the left-handed Crowder's ouster. Right-hander Stan Newton came in, but allowed a pinch-hit single by Brian Bock. After striking out pinch-hitter Kevin Gilbride, Aaron Pribble hit a pinch-hit RBI single to score Flick and advance pinch-runner Nate Jackson to third.
With runners at the corners, Newton struck out Matthew Purtell. A wild pitch with Cortland Wilson batting pulled the Rainbows to within a run and put the tying run on second base. But Newton struck out Wilson to gain his fourth save.
The series concludes today with Wakon Childers (1-0, 3.63) pitching for the Rainbows. The game will be aired live on KCCN-AM 1420 starting at 9:15 a.m.
• Warmup toss: UH's Tim Montgomery struck out twice yesterday, the 46th and 47th times this season, breaking the previous mark of 46 set by John Matias in 1989.
