Hawai'i loses 5th straight in WAC
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| UH shortstop Brian Finegan avoided Nevada's Robert Marcial and threw to first to complete a third-inning double play.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser What: Western Athletic Conference baseball Who: Nevada vs. Hawai'i When: 6:35 tonight, 1:05 p.m. tomorrow Where: Les Murakami Stadium Parking: $3 Tickets: $6 blue and orange levels; $5 red level (adults); $4 red level (65-older, students K-12 and UH students with IDs) |
The 6-foot-4 junior right-hander beat Hawai'i for the third consecutive time at Les Murakami Stadium last night, 5-1, in Western Athletic Conference baseball.
The loss dropped the Rainbows (1-6 WAC, 14-10 overall) to last place in the conference, as previously winless Louisiana Tech (1-3) beat San Jose State, 3-2, last night. The Wolf Pack (2-2, 10-13) snapped a two-game losing streak and extended UH's to two and five in the WAC.
Miramontes (4-1) — who beat UH 5-0 with a five-hitter last year and 6-4 in 2001, both times here — allowed a run on two hits and five walks in 8¡ innings. Zachary Basch got the final two outs for his third save.
"I don't know what it is," Miramontes said of his success here. "The sun? It's beautiful here. This is the place to play.
"I always feel good here. I always have my pitches when I'm here."
Miramontes — the WAC Pitcher of the Week last week after beating San Jose State, 5-1, last weekend — said he used his curve to set up his pitches. He had retired the first eight batters in order before Isaac Omura drew a walk after falling behind 0-2. Omura then spoiled Miramontes' no-hit bid with a line single to center with one out in the sixth and eventually scored UH's only run after taking third on Brian Finegan's double and scoring when Andrew Sansaver grounded out to second.
"That wasn't on my mind," Miramontes said of losing his no-hitter. "My mind was on just getting ground balls. This is the hardest place in the world to throw a no-hitter because of the turf."
Miramontes said Omura, who bats ninth, had quality at-bats against him. Omura drew a lead-off walk in the eighth, but was erased when Finegan grounded into a double play.
"He had good at-bats," Miramontes said. "Every time I walked him, I was throwing some quality pitches and kept fouling them off until I made a mistake. The ball he hit, I got the ball elevated. For the most part, most of their hitters weren't doing anything with it, but he just stayed with it and hit the ball hard. I have to tip my hat to him. He did his job."
The Rainbows' two hits were back-to-back in the sixth. They also managed five walks and a hit batsman. But only once did the lead-off batter reach to start an inning.
"I feel we definitely could've done a better job (offensively)," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We definitely didn't have a good approach tonight. I felt we didn't compete at the plate like we should have. You have to preface it by giving Miramontes credit because he did the same thing to San Jose State last week. But I just thought we had a lot more pitches to hit then what we ended up with."
Meanwhile, UH starter Chris George (4-3) paid for one bad inning. After getting two outs in the third, Ryan Strain stole second and advanced to third on catcher Brian Bock's throwing error to second before Chris Dickerson walked. Kevin Kouzmanoff infield single off George to shortstop Finegan scored Strain, but Finegan's throwing error to first allowed Dickerson to take third and Kouzmanoff to make it to second. Ben Mummy then homered to right-center to make it 4-0.
The Wolf Pack added a run in the fifth with one out. Dickerson walked, stole second and scored on Kouzmanoff's double to left-center.
George was charged with five runs on eight hits and five walks with seven strikeouts. Guy McDowell pitched two scoreless innings, allowing two walks.
"I was OK with Chris' performance," Trapasso said. "He battled and that's the best he's thrown in a few starts. Really, there were two pitches that he made that he got hurt on. Tonight, you make one bad pitch and it happens to score three runs, then that's pretty much the story of the game."
Trapasso said freshman Rich Olsen (2-1) will start tonight for UH. Junior right-hander J.T. Sherman (2-3) is scheduled to pitch for Nevada. Game time is back to 6:35 p.m.
"I think he's a good fit (against Nevada)," Trapasso said of his choice. "We saw a lot of right-handers (batters)."
Last night's start was delayed 20 minutes because the umpires arrived late. The turnstile count was 938 for the game slated for 5:35 p.m., an hour earlier than usual because of men's volleyball at the Stan Sheriff Center.
