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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, March 25, 2002

Rainbows lose series finale

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Pitchers Matt Durkin of San Jose State and Jason Piepmeier of Hawai'i appeared to be even, at least on paper, entering yesterday's Western Athletic Conference baseball series finale.

San Jose State starter Matt Durkin, right, frustrated Hawai'i hitters, allowing one run and three hits over eight innings. He had a no-hitter through five innings.

Jeff Widener 8 The Honolulu Advertiser

Both are freshmen from the Bay Area. Durkin, of San Jose, was 2-1 with a 5.21 earned run average. Piepmeier, of San Carlos, was 0-1 with a 5.59 ERA.

Yet each performed so differently.

Durkin allowed a run on three hits in eight innings to help the Spartans beat the Rainbows, 10-2, in front of 977 at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Rainbows (8-18, 1-5) have lost 13 of their past 16 since sweeping UCLA Feb. 15-17.

"The discrepancy in talent was pretty apparent today," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "They were much better. We've shown that for us to beat teams of this caliber, we've got to be perfect. And it starts on the mound. Yesterday and today, we had no tone. We couldn't set the tone on the mound. We have to go back to the drawing board and back to basics on throwing the ball down in the zone."

Meanwhile, Piepmeier (0-2) lasted one-third of an inning, matching his season starting debut Feb. 2 against Florida State. But unlike that game, when he faced seven batters, he lasted only four yesterday, giving up three runs on a walk and two doubles.

"I hate to do that, especially to a freshman," Trapasso said of the early hook. "But he showed no signs of trying to get the ball down and working our approach. He was back to throwing as a freshman, throwing as hard as he could and not worried about where it goes. You're not going to pitch when you're going to throw that way."

On the other side, Durkin (3-1), who did not know he was starting until the team arrived at the stadium, had no-hit the Rainbows through five innings, facing the minimum. He had hit Brent Cook with a pitch in the fourth, but retired him when Lane Nogawa lined into an unassisted double play to first baseman Bryan Baker.

The first hit he allowed was a double by Gregg Omori, who had two of the three hits allowed by Durkin.

"Durkin had us overmatched," Trapasso said. "Not too many people are going to hit him the way he was throwing today."

Durkin practiced what Trapasso preaches to UH's pitchers: fastball command and keep the defense active.

"I just tried to locate my fastball, get it over for strikes, get ground balls," said Durkin. "I was just trying to put it on the outside corner of the plate, get people to ground out to the right side."

That's where second baseman Gabe Lopez handled six grounders and three pop outs.

The Rainbows did not solve Durkin until the eighth. With one out, Jason Carlson doubled to left and took third on Omori's single to center. Carlson scored UH's first run on Kevin Gilbride's sacrifice fly to right.

Durkin gave way to Casey Minister in the ninth. The Rainbows scored their second run after consecutive singles by Tim Montgomery, Julian Russell and Danny Mocny. After Aaron Pribble grounded into a force out at second, Chad Boudon lined out to third baseman Hector Zamora,who doubled off Pribble at first to end the game.

The Spartans faced five relievers in their 22-hit attack. Dino Quintero, Zamora, Baker and Nathan Corrick each had three hits. Zamora, who had a solo home run in the sixth, had three RBIs.

It was the second time this season the Rainbows have surrendered 20 or more hits; that happened three times all last year. It was the 15th time in 26 games they have allowed 10 or more hits.

The Rainbows have today off, the first day of the Ohana Hotels Rainbow Easter Tournament. They play six games in six days starting tomorrow.

Trapasso said Sean Yamashita and Pribble are likely to start tomorrow's and Wednesday's games. He wasn't sure of the order yet. He will then determine if Chris George, who pitched UH's lone win against San Jose State Friday, is ready for Thursday or Friday.

The Rainbows open the tournament tomorrow against Birmingham-Southern, which is making its season debut in Division I after beating Lewis-Clark State for the NAIA title last year. The Warriors also are in the Easter Tournament.

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