Fresno St. beats UH in WAC opener, 6-3

Advertiser Staff

Chris George suffered his worst outing of the season, giving up five runs in 2¡ innings, as Fresno State rolled past Hawai'i, 6-3, last night at Beiden Field in Fresno, Calif.

The Rainbows (0-1 WAC, 11-4 overall) had their four-game win streak snapped by the Bulldogs (1-0, 5-11), who stopped their four-game skid.

As with his previous start against UH-Hilo, George (4-1) struggled with command of his pitches. In that 9-2 win a week ago, he survived by making good pitches in spots and his offense took some pressure off. But it was a different story with the battle-tested Bulldogs, who had played two nationally ranked teams in Cal State-Fullerton and Stanford (getting swept in three by each).

"He didn't have anything tonight from the first pitch," UH coach Mike Trapasso said of George. "He had no command, and when that was apparent, we had to get him out quick."

Hawai'i found itself trailing 5-0 after three innings before scoring twice in the fifth inning against FSU starter Cody Smith (2-2). With two outs, Brian Bock singled and took third on Jaziel Mendoza's double to left-center. Both scored on Schafer Magana's single to center.

The Rainbows got their last run in the sixth. Josh Green doubled to right with one out and took third on Rocky Russo's single to left. Green scored when Andrew Sansaver grounded into a fielder's choice to second, where second baseman Ryan Haag's throw pulled shortstop Chris Patrick off of second for an error.

Smith gave up three runs on seven hits in six innings before giving way to David Griffin (¡ inning), Chad Edwards (2¡) and Bryan Wolfenbarger (¡), who got his second save.

The Bulldogs didn't take long to score. Haag walked to lead off the first inning and Patrick was hit by a pitch. Tory Davis blooped a single to left, scoring Haag to make it 1-0.

George got a double play and struck out Brian Pierce to end the first inning, and retired the first two batters in the second. But Brandon Marcelli doubled to left and Joey Myers walked. After a wild pitch advanced the runners, Haag lined a two-run single to right to make it 3-0.

In the third, Casey McGehee hit a one-out, solo home run to left, and Pierce followed with a single, chasing George after 2¡ innings — his shortest stint of the season and second shortest for a UH starter this season (Ricky Bauer went 1á against Sacramento State). Freshman Mike Peck cam eon in relief of George, but after two quick strikes, back-to-back wild pitches sent Pierce to third, where he scored on Kent Sakamoto's double to left that made it 5-0. Peck would pitch 3á scoreless innings, his longest outing of the season.

"Mike was the lone bright spot the whole game," Trapasso said. "He settled the game, gave us a chance to get back in the game."

The Rainbows had a golden opportunity in the seventh when they trailed 5-3. They had runners advance on a wild pitch with two out to give them second and third with Green at the plate. But Green, who was 1-for-5 with a double, popped out to second to end the threat.

Hawai'i got two runners on in the ninth because of an error and a walk, but Green popped out to third to end the game.

"We just didn't compete at the plate," Trapasso said. "We didn't have a good game offensively, and part of that has to go to the job their pitcher was doing, but not all of it."

The series continues at 11:05 a.m. HST today. KKEA 1420 AM will broadcast the game.