Rainbows roll over UH-Hilo, 8-2

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

At 6 feet 5 and 240 pounds, there's a lot of room for butterflies in Keahi Rawlins' gut. But the freshman from Moloka'i overcame pregame nerves with four effective innings in his starting debut to lead Hawai'i-Manoa over UH-Hilo, 8-2, last night.

UH-Hilo catcher Nalei Sooto, left, awaits the arrival of Hawai'i-Manoa's Isaac Omura at home plate. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Although Rawlins did not go the necessary five innings to get credit for the win, it was nonetheless an important outing for the freshman, one of the state's top pro prospects coming out of high school.

"The biggest thing with Keahi is his first start, it's against the state rival so you know he's going to have those butterflies flying and they were," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "Our only concern was he stay away from the walk and he did. He threw strikes, he forced contact, he made things happen. If we had gotten him some early support offensively in the game, he would've been able to get a win. It was a great outing for him and I'm really proud of him."

Rawlins was so nervous before the game, he couldn't even take a drink of water, he said.

"It was nerve-wracking," Rawlins said.

Rawlins gave up two runs on six hits with three strikeouts in his four-inning stint that was capped by around an 80-pitch count. He used 75 pitches, but did not walk a batter.

The UH coaches were pleased with Rawlins' poise. In his final inning, he gave up two runs, but left runners at the corners to keep the game close (UHH led 2-1) against his counterpart, Daniel Lockett (0-2), who retired eight of the first nine batters he faced before Schafer Magana snapped the scoreless game with a solo home run down the left-field line.

Rawlins said he could hear the UHH players trying to rattle him when he got in trouble.

"I knew I had to 'game-up,' " Rawlins said.

"He did a nice job," UH pitching coach Chad Konishi said. "He was very composed, just really tried to play catch with the glove and he did a really nice job. He stayed in control with his body and allowed himself to throw a lot of strikes."

The Vulcans' only scoring came on a two-out, two-run single by Alan Sarmiento in the fourth. The inning might have been bigger for UHH, except for a diving catch in left-center by center fielder Tim Montgomery for the first out of the inning.

"That was sweet," Rawlins said. "Tim is awesome."

Nick Ponomarenko (1-0), who played first base and designated hitter in the UCLA series, pitched three scoreless innings of relief. It was what the Rainbows needed to add six unanswered runs from the fifth through seventh innings to pull away. Freshman Guy McDowell and senior Bryan Lee pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to finish off UHH.

The Rainbows offense came alive in the fifth against Lockett, who gave up four runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Catcher Matt Inouye, another freshman making his first start, walked and took second when Brian Finegan reached on a bunt single to first.

After both advanced on Magana's sacrifice, Isaac Omura's ground single to right gave UH a 4-2 lead.

A walk to Brent Cook ended Lockett's night, but reliever Jason Miyahira got out of a bases-loaded jam to keep the Vulcans close.

But the Rainbows got a run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Magana. Then Montgomery's three-run home run to left padded UH's lead.

"Our guys just kept their composure throughout the whole game," Trapasso said. "We executed really well tonight. When we had to get bunts down, we got them down, we moved runners, got the sac fly when we needed to and scored in five straight innings to take the lead and take control."

Up next for the Rainbows is a three-game series against Sacramento State starting Friday. Chris George will pitch the series opener for UH.

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