Nevada hands Hawai'i sixth consecutive loss in WAC, 6-4
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
There was a power outage last night at Les Murakami Stadium, but not in Erick Streelman's bat.
Nevada's left fielder drilled a two-run home run to right in the eighth inning off Keahi Rawlins that broke a 4-all game in a 6-4 win against Hawai'i in Western Athletic Conference baseball.
The Wolf Pack (3-2 WAC, 11-13 overall) handed the Rainbows (1-7, 14-11) their third consecutive loss overall and sixth in a row in conference in front of 1,414, who sat through a 21-minute delay when the lights went out before the start of the bottom of the seventh inning.
"That was tough," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We're still anemic offensively, but I feel bad for Keahi because he really pitched well. He just made one bad pitch and you gotta give credit where it's due. The guy hit it out."
It spoiled an otherwise stellar outing for Rawlins (0-2), who allowed two runs in four-plus innings on two hits and a walk in relief of starter Rich Olsen (four innings, four runs on seven hits and two walks). He dominated the previous three innings, when the only runner that reached was hit by a pitch. Trapasso said Rawlins was clocked at around 89-91 mph. But in the eighth, Kevin Kouzmanoff hit an outside fastball to right for a single and took second on Ben Mummy's sacrifice that set up Streelman's home run on a 1-1 fastball away.
"I left it up in the zone," Rawlins said. "It was just a mistake."
"I was looking for fastball," Streelman said. "He looked like a guy who was confident with throwing his hard stuff, so I was looking for that in that situation."
It was the little mistakes that hurt the Rainbows. Offensively, they failed to execute on sacrifice attempts in the first and third innings, even though they got three runs in the latter. In Nevada's three-run fourth inning, with two outs, Mike Hass hit a grounder to the right side hole, where second baseman Isaac Omura ranged wide to his left, but his throw pulled first baseman Andrew Sansaver off the bag. Robert Marcial followed with a single to load the bases to set up Ryan Strain's two-run single that was followed by Brett Hayes' RBI single.
"Isaac has to make that play," Trapasso said. "But Olsen can't give up singles after that either."
Nevada starter Justin Sherman nursed a 4-3 lead until the bottom of the sixth when the Rainbows tied the game. With one out, Brent Cook reached on a bunt single to third and advanced to third on a hit-and-run single to right by Brian Bock. Matt Inouye's sacrifice fly to center scored Cook.
"I don't want to say that one pitch cost us the game," Trapasso said. "That's what people are going to look at because the guy hits a two-run home run. But when you look up there (the scoreboard), we score one run in the last six innings. We're getting to the point where we're struggling and we just have to play out of this, both offensively and pitching-wise. Unless we get the leadoff guy on, we're having a hard time making things happen."
The Rainbows appeared to be on track offensively in their three-run third inning, when except for the failed sacrifice, the Rainbows executed nicely. Tim Montgomery led off with a double to left and scored on Nick Ponomarenko's single to left. Sansaver reached on a bunt single, but Finegan's bunt resulted in a force at third. Omura singled to center for the second run and put runners at first and third before Cook's force at second scored Finegan to put UH ahead 3-1.
The Rainbows will try to avert a sweep at 1:05 p.m. today. UH will send left-hander Justin Cayetano against 6-foot-5 right-hander Eddie Bonine.
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