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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 10, 2002

Solid pitching, timely hitting lift No. 4 Rice over 'Bows, 6-3

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Steven Herce overcame a shaky first inning and was backed by a 14-hit attack to lead No. 4 Rice over Hawai'i, 6-3, last night in Western Athletic Conference baseball.

Herce (4-1) allowed three runs in eight-plus innings with seven strikeouts to help the Owls (14-4, 2-0 WAC) win their second consecutive against the Rainbows (7-11, 0-2) before 1,523 at Les Murakami Stadium.

A steady rain soaked the dirt areas of home plate and the pitcher's mound. Herce might have had trouble with his footing on the mound in the first inning.

"The rain bothered him a bit first, but to his credit, he was able to straighten out," Rice coach Wayne Graham said. "He came up with pretty good stuff."

UH starter Chris George (0-1) allowed four runs in 3á innings, his shortest outing in three starts. William Quaglieri allowed two runs in five innings before giving way to Matt Le Ducq, who pitched for one out.

Basically, the Rainbows lost to a more talented team, where nearly every hitter is a power threat. Down 2-1 after the first, the Owls didn't take long to regain the lead in the second inning on a two-run double by Austin Davis, who batted 3 for 4.

Rice's Vincent Sinisi, who had two homers Friday, was 3 for 5 with two RBIs yesterday, and Eric Arnold was 2 for 3 with two RBIs.

As on Friday, the Rainbows had opportunities. They scored twice in the first, but left the bases loaded. They also left runners in scoring position in the third, fourth and sixth.

But UH coach Mike Trapasso was still pleased with his team's progress.

"Our approach, offensively, has been much improved the last two games," Trapasso said. "We've been laying off pitches that are out of the zone, that we've been swinging at the last couple of weeks. It sounds funny, but these last two games I've seen us make progress as a team than we have in the last two weeks. I like the direction we're heading. It's just that we're playing a team that didn't make any mistakes today."

And there are no holes in Rice's batting order. The Rainbows walked five, almost twice their season average per game.

"Whatever pitch you make has to be down," Trapasso said. "You have to be able to mix and change speeds and not get into counts where they can sit dead red. You have to come into them, even when you're behind in the counts. You have to keep the ball down. That's why you see a little more walks today than I would like."

The Owls also left the bases loaded in their first inning, but unlike the Rainbows, they were able to make up for it in later innings.

In the Rice first, Davis walked with one out, took second on Arnold's single to left and scored on Sinisi's single to right-center on a hit-and-run.

The Rainbows scored twice in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Lane Nogawa and a throwing error on a force play to take a 2-1 lead.

Davis' second-inning double gave Rice a lead it would not relinquish. Sacrifice flies by Arnold in the fourth and sixth innings put the Owls up 5-2, before the Rainbows scored one in the bottom of the sixth. Cortland Wilson led off with a roller off the third base bag that sailed over third baseman Hunter Brown for a double. After taking third on Derek Honma's ground out to second, Wilson scored on Gregg Omori's single to center to pull UH to 5-3.

The Owls got insurance in the ninth when Arnold led off with a triple off the right-field wall and scored on Sinisi's single to left.

The Rainbows will try to avert a sweep at 1:05 p.m. today. Left-hander Aaron Pribble will pitch for UH against Rice's Jeff Nieman (2-0, 2.53), a 6-foot-9, 260-pound freshman right-hander. He has 19 strikeouts in 21 1/3 innings.

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