Ex-MPI pitcher beats UH
| • | Rainbow tourney opens tomorrow |
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
The last time Patrick McGuigan won at Les Murakami Stadium, it was to lead Mid-Pacific Institute to the 2002 state baseball championship.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
Yesterday, the sophomore right-hander pitched three-hit ball over 5 1/3 innings of relief to lead San Francisco over Hawai'i, 7-4, giving the Dons (5-7) the series, 2-1.
UH's Matt Inouye slides safely into second base on a steal in the first inning under San Francisco's Armand Gaerlan.
McGuigan (1-2) handed the Rainbows (9-7) their second consecutive loss. He also allowed a run and one walk with one strikeout.
"It was good to come back," McGuigan said of his homecoming. "(The series win) was good for the team. We kept scoring runs and that made it easier to pitch."
McGuigan replaced starter T.J. Franco with runners at first and second with two outs in the fourth. The Rainbows had scored earlier in the inning to pull to 4-3. McGuigan got Brian Finegan to ground into a force out to end the threat.
Leading 5-3 entering the bottom of the seventh, McGuigan labored, when he allowed a run when UH sent seven batters to the plate. He allowed a single, a walk and two hit batsmen, including one against his former MPI classmate and batterymate Matt Inouye that loaded the bases with two outs. ("The curveball just slipped out of my hand because it was a little wet," McGuigan said.) But McGuigan got Nate Thurber to fly out to center to end the inning. McGuigan then retired six of the last seven batters of the game, five of them on ground outs.
"That was a gritty performance," USF coach Nino Giarratano said.
McGuigan, the Advertiser's 2002 State Player of the Year, was used as a closer before yesterday. But Giarratano said since the Dons have no mid-week games this week, he decided to extend his work, especially since he wasn't used in Saturday's doubleheader.
"One run in five innings is pretty special," Giarratano said.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
The Rainbows had 10 hits, two walks and two hit batsmen, but could not pull the trigger when it mattered. They had three singles in the fourth, but managed only one run. They had runners at second and third with one out in the seventh, but only came away with one run.
Hawai'i's Greg Kish reaches first safely on a single as the throw from the shortstop gets past first baseman Chris Genung in the second inning. Kish went to second base on the play.
"We just didn't get those clutch hits that we needed that we call 'rainbows,' " UH senior shortstop Finegan said. "I thought when we had bases loaded and the rain delay, that was the killer for us."
In the fourth inning against Franco, Thurber, Greg Kish and Isaac Omura singled consecutively with one out to load the bases. Then came the 32-minute rain delay. When play resumed, Franco faced Robbie Wilder, whose sacrifice fly to left scored Thurber to pull UH to 4-3. But Giarratano pulled Franco for McGuigan, who retired Finegan on a force.
"We had 'em on the ropes and they got McGuigan warmed," Finegan said. "I thought we'd do a little better against Franco in that situation. But we just didn't get the timely hits we needed. It kind of happened to us earlier in the year, too, against (Cal State) Northridge. We just have to keep battling out there.
"We'll be all right. We have a lot of games coming up."
Rainbows coach Mike Trapasso said the delay wasn't the reason for UH's lack of hitting.
"We just didn't get any two-out hits," Trapasso said. "That's what cost us today.
"We didn't pitch well enough and they were able to execute and score runs. We also made a couple of defensive mistakes. They just beat us."
Rainbows starter Clary Carlsen (2-3) gave up four runs on nine hits in 3¡ innings. Darrell Fisherbaugh was tagged for three runs in 3á innings of relief.
Lead-off batter Cy Donald, led off the game with a double and eventually scored on an RBI ground out to second by Armand Gaerlan. Donald, a Mililani High graduate, doubled and scored to lead-off Saturday's second game of the doubleheader.
The Rainbows came back with two runs in the bottom of the first on RBI singles by Inouye and Rocky Russo, making his first start at third since Feb. 6 against CSUN. (He did start two games after that as the designated hitter.) Since then, Creighton Kahoali'i had started at third.
"(Russo) needs to play, and more than anything else, Creighton needed a day off," Trapasso said of the change. "We gave (Kahoali'i) a rest and Rocky did well and that's good to see. He got an opportunity and did well, had a solid game. He'll be out there more."
Russo was 1 for 4 with an RBI and walk.
Kahoali'i, a former high school shortstop, has been struggling on defense with three errors in his last three games. He also saw his batting average dip to .175.
The Dons tied the game at 2 in the top of the second on an RBI ground out by Joe Norfolk, then snapped the deadlock with a two-run fourth.
Joe Jacobitz led off with a single, took second on Maui High graduate Royce Fukuroku's sacrifice, advanced to third on Scott Cousins' single to short. With runners at the corners, Jonnie Knoble hit a grounder to first baseman Andrew Sansaver, who looked home and to second, making his throw to first late for an RBI single. Norfolk lined a single to center to make it 4-2.
After UH pulled to 4-3 in the fourth, USF added a run in the seventh, as did the Rainbows, to make it 5-4. But USF got two runs in the eighth, one on Norfolk's second RBI double of the game.
Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8042.
• • •
