Posted on: Saturday, March 24, 2001
Rainbows shut out San Jose State, 4-0
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Rainbow Stadium crowd of 865 missed its cue last night.
On a night worthy of tossing seat cushions into the air, as spectators do in sumo to celebrate an upset, fans held on to theirs after Hawai'i slammed San Jose State, 4-0, in Western Athletic Conference baseball.
The first 500 entering the park received seat cushions sponsored by KCCN radio.
Gregg Omori's eighth-inning grand slam sealed the win for UH starter Jeff Coleman (2-4), as they helped the Rainbows (9-16, 4-12) snap a three-game losing streak.
"I was going crazy," Coleman said about his reaction after Omori's home run, his fifth of the season. "I just jumped out of my seat. I was so pumped after that. I knew we were going to win the ballgame right here."
Omori's slam was the 20th in UH history and the first since March 14, 1998, when Neal Honma had one at Rice. Coleman's complete-game shutout was the first by a UH starter since May 6 by Randon Ho in a 2-0 win at UH-Hilo.
It was also the first time in 12 games the Rainbows did not commit an error.
Coleman, the Rainbows' most consistent pitcher, was at his best last night. He scattered seven hits, walked none and hit one batter, while striking out 10. Only twice did more than one batter reach safely. In the seventh, Brandon Macchi doubled with one out, and one out later tried to score from second on an infield single to shortstop by Zach Zwissig. But Macchi was thrown out at home by first baseman Danny Kimura to keep the shutout alive.
In the ninth, Junior Ruiz had an infield single to shortstop and Macchi was hit by a pitch. But Coleman got John Fagan to fly out to right and struck out Zwissig to end the game.
Although it got hairy for Coleman in the ninth, he was determined to log the complete game, which was the first of the season. He said he just enjoyed the moment.
"We saw a movie last night, Shall We Dance," Coleman said. "It was about enjoying what you're doing, enjoy the dance. So it was just enjoy the game (to me)."
Coleman was two batters away from being lifted, UH acting coach Carl Furutani said. "If that batter (Zwissig) had gotten on, I would've given him one more," he said. "He deserved it (the complete game). He did a great job."
The complete game could not have come at a more opportune time. With the Easter Tournament slated for Monday, UH relievers are going to be used quite often during the week.
Coleman's counterpart, SJSU's Chris Sherman (3-3), was not as effective, as he allowed base runners in each of the first six innings. But two base-running mistakes by UH and a caught-stealing aided Sherman along the way. Sherman's best inning was the seventh, when he retired the side in order. So SJSU coach Sam Piraro didn't hesitate to leave his ace in when UH loaded the bases.
"The inning before was his best inning he threw," Piraro explained. "I thought he was in control of the ballgame.
"He hung a slider. In other words, he couldn't be too fine there. You don't want to get behind in the count then have to groove it. He tried to throw a breaking ball, but it kind of stayed up. Omori did a great job. He tried to hit a sacrifice fly there, but he got all of it."
Sherman finished the game having thrown 140 pitches, compared to 123 by Coleman.
In the UH eighth, Kevin Gilbride pinch-hit for Gary Ahu and lined a single to right. Derek Honma came in to pinch-run for Gilbride before Arthur Guillen drew a walk, the fourth of five by Sherman. Then Sherman made the first of two mistakes. He fumbled Matthew Purtell's sacrifice for an error to load the bases. Then on a 1-0 pitch, Omori drilled the hanging slider over the original left-center field fence.
"I knew it would score a run, but I didn't think it was going out," Omori said.
The last time Coleman started against SJSU, he lasted only one-third of an inning, his shortest stint of the season. But he made up for it by pitching six scoreless innings of relief two days later in a series at San Jose, which the Spartans swept. So Piraro wasn't surprised at Coleman's outing.
"We chased his slider," Piraro said. "We made it easy for him. We started making adjustments. We did a good job toward the end, but he pitched a great game. He pitched out of trouble when he had to."
San Jose State dropped to 15-10-1 and 5-7.
The series continues at 2:05 p.m. today. Hawai'i will start Sean Yamashita (0-4) against Tim Adinolfi (3-3). The game will not be televised and the radio broadcast will end with the start of today's WNIT game from New Mexico.
