Hawai'i bats come alive to top Fresno

Advertiser Staff

For a change, it was the batters who came through for the pitchers.

Hawai'i scored in seven of nine innings to hold off Fresno State, 13-8, to even the Western Athletic Conference baseball series yesterday at Beiden Field in Fresno, Calif.

The Rainbows (1-1 WAC, 12-4 overall) tallied 16 hits — including home runs by Brent Cook, Brian Bock and Jaziel Mendoza — against six of eight pitchers to outlast the Bulldogs (1-1, 5-12). The teams combined for 33 hits in game that lasted three hours, 36 minutes.

"Truth is, probably half of those wins are because of our pitching," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "This is really our first true win, where the offense carried the pitchers."

Hawai'i displayed patience against the breaking pitches; it had four opposite-field hits in a four-run second inning against FSU starter Matt Garza (1-4), who was relieved by Jonathan Wiebe to start the third inning. And the Rainbows kept the pressure on by scoring in six consecutive innings from the fourth.

"I told our guys after the game I would be probably as impressed as I've been with our offensive club in the way they made adjustment in the way they turned things around," Trapasso said. "We got on our guys a little bit last night because in our last four, five games, we've kind of slept through the first part of the games offensively. I was very proud of our kids offensively for the way they came out. We competed, we were aggressive, we worked our plan."

The UH bats were definitely needed. Hawai'i's starting pitching struggled for the second straight game. Starter Justin Cayetano had difficulty keeping his pitches down, Trapasso said. Cayetano struggled so much he was lifted after 4¡ innings — two outs shy of the required minimum to get credit for a win — with UH holding a 5-3 lead.

Freshman Rich Olsen (1-1) pitched an effective 3á innings of relief, allowing two runs with no walks.

Andrew Sansaver, who was moved from the fifth spot to second, was 2-for-4 with four RBI, while Bock and Brian Finegan each had three hits. Mendoza had a three-run home run in the seventh, his first of the season. Cook's two-run homer came in the sixth.

Hawai'i will try to win its first out-of-state WAC series since 2001, when it took 2-of-3 at Rice. Ricky Bauer will pitch for UH in today's 11:05 a.m. (HST) series finale against FSU's Josh Glynn in a battle of right-handers.