Six baseball recruits sign to play for Rainbows

Advertiser Staff

Six recruits who earlier verbally committed to play for the University of Hawai'i baseball team have signed national letters of intent to play for the Rainbows, the school announced yesterday.

Among the six are Mid-Pacific Institute all-state right-hander Ricky Bauer (7-3, 1.69 ERA) and Triton (Ill.) junior college catcher Grady Symonds (.390, 65 RBIs in 59 games).

The other four are high school players from the Mainland: Shortstop Jason Carlson (.370) of Lompoc, Calif.; infielder Danny Mocny (.429, 20 home runs, 90 RBIs in three varsity seasons) of Santa Rosa, Calif.; pitcher Jason Piepmeier (10-3) of San Carlos, Calif.; and outfielder Derek Snell (.390, 19-for-19 in stolen bases) of Puyallup, Wash.

They are the first recruits to sign for first-year coach Mike Trapasso, who was hired in June. He said yesterday that these are probably the final signees for the 2002 season.

Trapasso returned yesterday from Los Angeles, where he and assistants Josh Sorge and Chad Konishi were scouting at the Area Code games for recruits from the Class of 2002. Before that, Trapasso attended the Western Athletic Conference baseball meetings in Reno, Nev.