Hawai'i shuts out Fresno State, 3-0

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

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What: Western Athletic Conference baseball Who: Fresno State (21-18, 7-6) vs. Hawai'i (21-19, 3-13) When: 6:05 p.m. today; 1:05 p.m. tomorrow Where: Les Murakami Stadium Parking: $3 Tickets: $6 Blue and Orange levels; $5 Red level (adults); $4 Red level (65-years-and-old, students K-12 and UH students with IDs) Radio/TV: None. Series history: Fresno State leads the series, 49-32; FSU won 2-of-3 March 7-9 at FSU. Promotion: American Savings Bank will hand out rally towels to the first 1,000 spectators entering tonight's game.

Bauer (3-3) gave up five hits in eight innings, tying a career-high with seven strikeouts, before giving way to Rich Olsen, who pitched a perfect ninth for his first save for the Rainbows (21-19 overall, 3-13 WAC), winners of three in a row, in front of 1,483 at Les Murakami Stadium.

"He gave us an opportunity to scratch and claw to try to get at least one run," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "He puts up zeroes and when you do that, it sure makes things easier for you.

"I'm happy for him, with all he's been through with throwing good games like this, well, similar, but not quite getting enough run support to get a win."

Cody Smith (6-4) engaged in a duel with Bauer through most of the game, allowing an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth for the Bulldogs (21-18, 7-6). He gave up four hits and two walks with two strikeouts in 6¡ innings.

Matt Inouye drove in two of the three runs. The first came by beating out a bases-loaded grounder to shortstop for a force at second in the sixth that scored UH's first run. Inouye's other RBI came on a safety squeeze in the eighth to score Brent Cook, who led off the inning with a triple to right-center.

Bauer set up the Bulldogs by throwing his breaking pitches for strikes early and keeping them off-balance by moving his fastball. Despite using a relatively low 94 pitches, Trapasso summoned Olsen to face FSU's second, third and fourth hitters in the lineup in the ninth because he noticed Bauer losing his tight spin on the slider.

Olsen, who has a tight-breaking curve, fell behind 3-1 to Chris Patrick leading off the inning, but got him to ground out to third. Scott Beshears drilled Olsen's first pitch to left, but Jaziel Mendoza chased it down for the second out before Casey McGehee, who injured his ankle earlier in the game, grounded out to third to end the game.

"Ricky was hitting his spots tonight, mixing it up pretty good," Inouye said of Bauer. "He wasn't afraid to come in, getting everything over the plate."

Hawai'i broke the deadlock in the sixth. Brian Finegan led off with a line single to right. He was safe at second when third baseman McGehee's throw to second pulled shortstop Chris Patrick off the bag for an error on a play off of Andrew Sansaver's sacrifice. Both runners advanced on Brent Cook's sacrifice. After Rocky Russo ran a 3-1 count, he was walked intentionally to load the bases for Inouye, who had grounded to shortstop for force plays in his previous two at-bats. Inouye did the same again, beating the relay to first, avoiding an inning-ending double play, and allowing Finegan to score to give UH a 1-0 lead before Isaac Omura grounded out to first to end the inning.

"Once I saw the ball take a big hop, I (hurried) down the line," Inouye said of trying to avoid an inning-ending double play.

Bauer nearly squandered his lead in the top of the seventh when Beshears singled and took third on McGehee's double to right-center. Beshears was held up after taking a wide turn; as it turned out, he might have scored because Omura dropped center fielder Tim Montgomery's relay.

The Rainbow infield played back, willing to concede the tying run. But Bauer struck out Kyle Atrat for the third time in the game for the first out.

"He didn't know what was coming," Inouye said. "We had his number today."

Bauer admitted he didn't know he had struck Atrat out the previous two at-bats.

Then Omura made a leaping catch of Kent Sakamoto's line drive to freeze the runners. Bauer then got Brandon Marcelli on a weak grounder to second to preserve the one-run lead.

"I was thinking I at least gotta get this first guy out," Bauer said of the jam. "Then maybe get the next guy to ground out or something, hoping to come out of the inning with only one run. You know, damage control. But it turned out good. Isaac had a great play out there. That fired me up."

"That was the play of the game," Trapasso said of Omura's snag of the liner.

Earlier in the game, Bauer worked out of another jam when the Bulldogs had Sakamoto at first and McGehee at third with one out. Bauer struck out Marcelli when Sakamoto broke for second. Inouye fired to Omura, who threw to first baseman Sansaver. As McGehee broke for the plate, Sansaver fired to Inouye, who chased and tagged McGehee as he headed back to third.

The Rainbows added insurance in the bottom of the eighth. Cook led off with a triple to right-center, and after Russo popped out to shortstop, scored on Inouye's squeeze by beating pitcher Matt Scott's throw home. Omura followed with a single to left to put runners at first and second, but Montgomery fouled out to the pitcher. Mendoza's line single to right scored Inouye and sent Omura to third, making it 3-0.

It was the second combined shutout of the season for UH. Justin Cayetano and Clary Carlsen combined to shut out Sacramento State, 2-0, on Feb. 15.

The series continues at 6:35 tonight. Chris George (5-5) will pitch for the Rainbows.