San Jose State sinks Rainbows, averts sweep

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

To University of Hawai'i baseball coach Mike Trapasso, holding an opponent to five runs on Sundays or in third games of series should give a team a chance to win.

Hawai'i's Rocky Russo strikes out in the second inning on a Corey Cabral sinker. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Cabral (2-1) pitched 7 2/3 strong innings to give the Spartans (21-23 overall, 7-13 WAC) their first conference road win of the season. The win also put the Spartans a half-game ahead of the Rainbows (25-20, 7-14), who dropped back to fifth place and had their seven-game win streak stopped.

"When you can hold a team to five runs on Sunday, you feel like you got a chance to win," Trapasso said, because teams will have exhausted their best starters by the third game of a series. "But we couldn't get anything against Cabral. He just had us stymied."

"It's huge," SJSU associate head coach Doug Thurman said of the win. "No. 1, to get the monkey off our back because we hadn't had a WAC win on the road. No. 2, a three-game sweep is a game-and-a-half different than winning one. (By winning, the Spartans moved into fourth place, a half-game ahead of the Rainbows in the WAC standings. Had UH won, it would have maintained its hold on fourth place, 1 1/2 games ahead of San Jose State.)

"We're trying to hold on and stay out of the cellar right now and hopefully at some point join the upper echelon of Rice and Nevada," Thurman said.

"But Hawai'i is on an outstanding run and they're doing the same thing. They're playing great baseball right now and we just want to keep up with those guys."

"He had a good sink on the fastball," UH shortstop Brian Finegan said. "It looked good all the way until the last 20 feet, and then the thing would just dive down into the strike zone."

"Everything was sinking, down, down, down," said Thurman, serving as interim coach for San Piraro, who is battling bone marrow cancer. "Once he found that, he was basically aggressive in the zone and getting after these guys to hit it on the ground. That and his slider is a pretty good out pitch for him."

Eleven of the 23 outs Cabral recorded were on grounders.

Meanwhile, things were the opposite for UH freshman starter Keahi Rawlins (4-3), who gave up five runs on six hits and four walks in 2 2/3 innings.

"It was not my day today," Rawlins said. "If I knew what to change out there, I would've change it. But I didn't."

A double play minimized damage to two runs in the first inning against Rawlins. But he walked three, including two with the bases full, in SJSU's three-run third that put the Spartans up 5-0.

UH's Clary Carlsen allowed a hit and two hit batsmen in 6 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. Advertiser library photo

Hawai'i had a golden opportunity in the eighth, when a single by Andrew Sansaver and walks to Brent Cook and Russo filled the bases to chase Cabral with two outs. But Matt Inouye swung at a 3-1 pitch and grounded to the shortstop for an inning-ending force at second.

"We had our opportunity, but we don't get off a good swing 3-1," Trapasso said. "(On) 3-1, you can't get jammed, but that happens."

The Rainbows' rally fell short in the ninth against Andy Cook. Brian Bock led off with a walk before pinch hitter Kevin Gilbride popped out to third. Isaac Omura doubled to right to put runners at second and third and set up Finegan's two-run double to left. But Andy Cook struck out Andrew Sansaver and Brent Cook to end the game.

The Rainbows will play at Sacramento State on Wednesday before resuming WAC play at Nevada, which swept the Rainbows here last month. The Wolf Pack (23-19, 12-5) are in second place behind Rice (40-7, 19-2) in the WAC.

"We got a little momentum in the end, scored a couple runs late in the game," Finegan said. "Hopefully, we got some momentum down for next weekend."

Trapasso said either Nick Ponomarenko or Justin Cayetano will start Wednesday's game.

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