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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 2, 2003

Rainbows knock off Vulcans, 9-2

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

In a not-so-fundamental game, Hawai'i-Manoa downed UH-Hilo, 9-2, in an intra-system baseball game last night.

Chris George had six strikeouts while improving to 4-0 as UH-Manoa beat UH-Hilo, 9-2.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

The Rainbows (9-3) had three runners thrown out on the base paths, but benefitted from three errors by the Vulcans (5-26) in a three-run fifth that snapped a 2-all game before 1,300 at Les Murakami Stadium.

In all UHH had five errors, giving them 70 in 31 games.

"You cannot go out and give a good team more than three outs an inning," UHH coach Joey Estrella said. "You do that, you're going to have problems."

Despite not having command of his breaking pitches, Chris George (4-0) still managed to go six innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with no walks and six strikeouts. Clary Carlsen pitched in two scoreless innings and Guy McDowell pitched a perfect ninth.

"He gave us six innings and only gave up two runs because he's a warrior," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "He battles and he got some big outs when we needed 'em."

George said he could throw his pitches for strikes, but could not place them in spots he wanted. Douglas Nassimbene drove in the Vulcans' runs on a two-out, solo home run in the second that gave UHH a short-lived 1-0 lead, and a two-out RBI double in the fourth that put the Vulcans up 2-1.

"That was just left over the plate, down the middle," George said of the home run ball. "He got it up in the air, got a good stroke on it."

Meanwhile, UHH starter Robert Shimabuku (0-5), who allowed five runs (two earned) in five innings, fell victim to his defense. With the game tied at 2, the Vulcans committed three errors with one out to start the bottom of the fifth. Brian Bock reached first on third baseman Daniel Lockett's throwing error, and advanced to third when Tim Montgomery reached second on a double error by shortstop Kevin Drever; his fielding error allowed Montgomery to reach first and his throwing error on the play allowed the runners to take second and third.

After Jaziel Mendoza was intentionally walked, Shimabuku struck out Schafer Magana. Then on an 0-2 count, Brian Finegan, who was 3-for-4 with four RBIs, doubled to right to score three and give UH-Manoa a 5-2 lead.

UH-Hilo’s Douglas Nassimbene (19) is congratulated by teammates after hitting a home run against UH-Manoa in the second inning.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

The Rainbows added two more runs in the sixth and two in the seventh against UHH's relievers. Rocky Russo and Montgomery had RBI doubles in the sixth and Russo had a two-run single in the seventh.

The Rainbows had runners thrown out at the plate to end the seventh and eighth innings. Third base coach Brian Green said the aggressive running is part of the team's style.

"With two outs and your last chance to score, we're coming," he said. "That's our philosophy. You're going to see a lot of guys thrown out at the plate this year. That's just our offense. You can't sit back on offense and hope to get three hits. If you get a base hit with a runner at second base, he has to score. You roll the dice. That's baseball."

But after the Rainbows tied the game in the fourth on a one-out, single by Brent Cook, they failed to capitalize on a potential big inning after an apparent double by Josh Green with Finegan at second and Cook at first. Green lined a hit to right-center that hung as center fielder Kaliko Oligo and right fielder Casey Oketani converged in the area. Finegan was supposed to go "halfway" between second and third, Green said. But Finegan went back to second to tag. When the ball wasn't caught, Cook was right on Finegan's tail between second and third. The relay reached catcher Nalei Sooto as Finegan rounded third. Finegan returned, leaving Cook stuck in a rundown between second and third. Sooto tagged Cook and Green had to return to first.

"I had two options as a coach: either get Finegan thrown out by a mile at the plate or hope we can get a rundown situation in a botched play," Green said. "Either way it was bad. It was a lack of focus on the bases."

While the Rainbows managed 13 hits, six came after Shimabuku departed. Shimabuku, who entered the game with a 9.00 earned run average and having allowed 56 hits in 32 innings, had an effective breaking ball to stall the Rainbows early. Trapasso said the Rainbows were impatient and getting out too early on the breaking pitches.

"We were really getting out in front of the off-speed stuff that Shimabuku was throwing," Trapasso said. "That's the one thing we've done a very good job of this year (not getting out in front). We need to have a little better plan at the plate (today)."

The series resumes at 1:05 p.m. today. Left-hander Justin Cayetano will pitch for Manoa against right-hander Brian Ebbs of Hilo.

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