UH's patience pays off against Alumni
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
It appears the Hawai'i baseball team's new approach to hitting paid off yesterday.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
The 2003 Rainbows drew as many walks as they had hits — nine of each — in beating the Alumni, 8-1, before 537 at Les Murakami Stadium.
University of Hawai'i Alumni starter Wakon Childers gave up five runs in two innings against the Rainbows.
Under new hitting coach Brian Green, the Rainbows are supposed to take better looks at pitches. They appeared to show it, drawing eight walks within the first four innings off two Alumni pitchers.
"They let the ball travel a little more," Green said. "From that regard, that was a real positive that our guys, in our first outing, were patient enough to let it travel and get some walks, get on base."
The Rainbows struck out twice against their nine walks. Green said the team's goal is to have a 1-to-1 ratio in strikeouts to walks.
Senior catcher Brian Bock led the attack, batting 2-for-3, including a three-run double in the fourth. Freshman second baseman Isaac Omura grounded a two-run triple to right and walked twice in four plate appearances. Junior college transfer Nick Ponomarenko was 2-for-2 with an RBI and junior third baseman Schafer Magana, one of 12 returning Rainbows, batted leadoff, reaching three times, twice on walks and once on a hit batsman. He was 0-for-1 with a sacrifice.
The Rainbows also stranded 13 runners, 10 in the first four innings. They committed one error when first baseman Ponomarenko had a grounder go through his legs, but that did not lead to any runs.
"We looked OK," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We obviously have a lot of work to do. That's why we play this game a week before. The best thing about it is we get all the young guys out there with some crowd, to see how they react, get those first butterflies out of the way and we were able to do that. We got most of our guys in there, get an at-bat, throw an inning."
Trapasso kept pitchers likely to start next weekend's UCLA series out. So senior Chris George, last year's ace, JC transfer Colby Summer and sophomore Ricky Bauer didn't pitch yesterday.
The team's sole available left-hander, Justin Cayetano, started and pitched a scoreless inning, striking out two and was credited with the win. The senior, a graduate from Mililani High, is a transfer from Washington State.
Freshmen Keahi Rawlins, Michael Peck, Richie Olsen and Guy McDowell also pitched. Squeezing in there was JC transfer Clary Carlsen.
Rawlins, a 6-5 right-hander from Moloka'i who was a 36th-round draft pick by the Philadelphia Phillies, Carlsen and Olsen pitched two innings each. Peck and McDowell tossed an inning. Peck gave up the only run when Aaron Pribble's double to right-center scored Moku Paiva from third in the sixth.
Overall, the varsity pitchers allowed five hits and four walks with seven strikeouts.
The Rainbows tagged Alumni starter Wakon Childers for five runs in two innings. Three came in the second when the Rainbows batted around. Matt Apana, a former farmhand in the Seattle Mariners system, didn't fare much better. After a scoreless third, he gave up Bock's three-run double.
Ken Mackenzie, Paul Ah Yat and Ian Jones combined for 4 1/3 scoreless innings. Ah Yat pitched two perfect innings.
NOTE: The UH athletic department is still awaiting replacement seats for the first three rows in section JJ of Les Murakami Stadium. The replacement seats are supposed to arrive by the end of the month, stadium manager Glenn Nakaya said.
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