Bauer earns first WAC honor

Advertiser Staff

Ricky Bauer is the University of Hawai'i's first weekly award winner of the season. He was named Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week, the league announced yesterday.

Bauer (2-1) allowed an unearned run in eight innings in a 14-6 win against Florida International Friday night. He allowed six hits and no walks with four strikeouts. He had faced the minimum number of batters through six innings, despite giving up three hits because two runners were erased by double plays and one was caught stealing.

It was the junior right-hander's first league award of his career.

This season, Bauer has been getting strong run support. The Rainbows have averaged 9.67 runs per game in his three outings. That is more than twice the support he had last year, when he got an average of four runs per start. In games he did not start last year, the team averaged six runs. Despite a 3.12 earned-run average last year, the 2001 Mid-Pacific Institute graduate was 3-5.

Rice infielder Adam Morris was named the Player of the Week. Hawai'i's Nate Thurber was a nominee for that award. Thurber batted .400 with two home runs and six RBIs in UH's three-game sweep of the Golden Panthers.

Meanwhile, the Rainbows (4-5) will try to even their record tonight when they play Hawai'i Pacific University (5-4) in UH's first mid-week game of the season. Game time is 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Sea Warriors are coming off an 11-9 win against Sonoma (Calif.) State on Feb. 7. Hawai'i Pacific was 2-4 in that series.

The Rainbows continue their intra-state schedule when UH-Hilo (4-11) comes to Honolulu for a three-game series Friday through Sunday.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8042.