No. 1 Rice completes sweep of 'Bows, 8-1

Advertiser Staff

The nation's longest collegiate baseball winning streak continues.

Josh Baker pitched seven strong innings and Craig Stansberry drove in five runs as No. 1 Rice beat the University of Hawai'i, 8-1, yesterday at Reckling Park in Houston to complete a Western Athletic Conference series sweep and extend its winning streak to 29.

The Owls (32-1 overall, 12-0 WAC) have defeated the Rainbows (17-17, 1-11) 12 consecutive meetings dating to last year. UH fell to .500 for the first time since the second game of the season.

Baker (7-0) gave up a first-inning run on two of the five hits he allowed. He had five strikeouts and one walk. Steven Herce, the preseason WAC Pitcher of the Year, made his season debut after recovering from rotator cuff inflammation. He pitched a perfect eighth. Closer David Aardsma added a scoreless ninth.

Meanwhile, UH starter Chris George (4-5) was inconsistent in his 6á innings, allowing six runs on seven hits with a season-high six walks.

"At times, he wasn't throwing his breaking ball with any consistency," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "When he did, he was able to pitch well. When he didn't, he would get behind in the count and walk a guy or give up a base hit."

With UH trailing 4-1 entering the bottom of the seventh, George retired the first two batters before Vincent Sinisi singled. After Sinisi stole second on the first pitch to Austin Davis, George threw ball two. Trapasso went to visit his pitcher, but mostly to remind George to come to a discernible stop into the stretch position to avoid getting called for a balk. George ended up walking Davis, but was left in to face Stansberry, who ripped a two-run double to end George's day.

"He was still throwing well," Trapasso said of his decision to leave George in despite allowing his sixth walk. "We wanted him to throw the breaking ball against Stansberry because Stansberry can hit the fastball. We had Clary (Carlsen) in the pen, but he's primarily a fastball guy. I was kicking myself after that, but obviously if he gets the guy out, we're OK."

The Rainbows scored against Baker in the first inning. Brian Finegan led off with a line single to right and took third on a hit-and-run ground single to right by Brent Cook. Finegan scored when Andrew Sansaver grounded out to second.

Hawai'i never threatened after that. It got the leadoff hitter on in the fourth when Sansaver had the first of his two singles in the game. He took second on Brian Bock's sacrifice and went to third when Josh Green grounded out to second. That was the only other time a UH runner reached third since the first inning.

In the fifth, Kevin Gilbride led off by reaching on second baseman Enrique Cruz's throwing error. But Gilbride was thrown out trying for second on the play when catcher Justin Ruchti, backing up the play, fired to shortstop Paul Janish.

Hawai'i was without its hot hitter in Matt Inouye. A nagging strain in his back was aggravated in Saturday's game, Trapasso said. Inouye is day-to-day.

Meanwhile, Jaziel Mendoza, who has a stress fracture in his foot, might be ready for the Louisiana Tech series that starts Thursday.

The Rainbows play a non-conference game at Centenary at 2 p.m. (HST) tomorrow. Keahi Rawlins will start for UH.

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