Brown's home run leaves Hawai'i blue, 9-7
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
Third baseman Hunter Brown's three-run home run with two outs to left-center off Sean Yamashita rallied No. 4 Rice over Hawai'i, 9-7, last night in a Western Athletic Conference baseball season opener for both teams.
Most of the Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,435 were stunned by Brown's first home run of the season that helped the Owls (13-4, 1-0 WAC) overcome a 7-6 deficit entering the ninth.
The Rainbows (7-10) took the lead in the bottom of the seventh on Lane Nogawa's two-out single that scored Brent Cook, who walked and stole second, to break the 6-all game.
"It's a tough loss," UH starting pitcher Bryan Lee said. "We stayed in the whole game. We played a good game. It's just that the ball bounced their way."
Added UH coach Mike Trapasso: "I'm extremely proud of our guys. We played with heart. We played with a lot of intensity and we hung in there. By all rights, we had the game won. We just couldn't close it out."
Brown's homer was the third of the game by Rice. First baseman Vincent Sinisi had smacked a pair of two-run home runs earlier. His first came off Lee in the first inning and the second in the top of the seventh that tied the game at 6.
With one out and a runner on first, Trapasso lifted Lee for Yamashita to face Sinisi, who drilled the first pitch he saw over the right field wall.
With the Rainbows leading 7-6, Yamashita retired the first two hitters in the Rice ninth. Then up came Sinisi, who walked. Then Eric Arnold grounded a single to right to put runners on first and second. After falling behind 1-2 to Yamashita, Brown drilled a hanging curve.
"I was just trying to get the bat on the ball," said Brown, selected as the WAC preseason Player of the Year. "Fortunately, I got a pitch fairly up in the strike zone and got a good piece of bat on it."
Trapasso said it wasn't the hanging curve that cost the Rainbows.
"There were so many other things," he said. "When you got two outs and nobody on, we didn't want to give Sinisi anything to hit, but I didn't want to pitch around him to where we walked him. We just went aggressive against him and that just got him started. Then the ground ball finds a hole — it was probably my fault for not having Lane (Nogawa, second baseman) playing over a little more. We just couldn't pull it out."
The Rainbows had their chances throughout the game. They left 15 runners on base, 10 in scoring position. Twice they left the bases loaded.
The series continues at 6:35 p.m. today. Chris George (0-0, 6.75) will start for Hawai'i, while Steven Herce (3-1, 3.86) will pitch for Rice.
