Rice pitcher strikes out 13 'Bows in 5-3 win
Advertiser Staff
There is a reason Jeff Niemann is projected to be one of the top picks in June's major league draft.
The 6-foot-9, 260-pound junior right-hander matched a career-high 13 strikeouts to lead nationally ranked Rice over Hawai'i, 5-3, last night at Reckling Park in Houston.
"He's not last year's Pitcher of the Year for nothing," UH coach Mike Trapasso said.
It was the Western Athletic Conference opener for the Rainbows (0-1 WAC, 14-8 overall), whose five-game win streak was snapped. The Owls (4-0, 15-5) continued their mastery of UH by winning their 13th meeting in a row since 2002.
Niemann (3-2) did give UH a window in the fourth, when the 'Bows sent seven batters to the plate and scored three runs. Jaziel Mendoza's RBI single and Andrew Sansaver's two-run double accounted for the scoring.
"We thought we were getting to him," Trapasso said. "But everything (after that) seemed to go against us."
Niemann settled after the fourth. He was charged with three runs on six hits with two walks and an uncharacteristic three hit batsmen. He had two in 28¡ innings entering yesterday's game.
Niemann gave way to tomorrow's probable starter Wade Townsend, who struck out two of the four batters he faced in the ninth for his second save of the season.
Ricky Bauer (5-2) pitched his second complete game for UH, giving up five runs on eight hits and a walk with three strikeouts. After giving up a two-run home run to Austin Davis in the third, Bauer retired 11 in a row before an infield single by Adam Rodgers in the sixth.
Bauer threw a changeup low in the strike zone to Davis. Trapasso said it was a good pitch but Davis just "golfed it out of there."
Davis indirectly figured in Rice's insurance run in the eighth. With a runner on second with two outs, the right-handed Bauer intentionally walked the left-handed hitting Davis to face the right-handed hitting Adam Morris, who doubled to left to score Paul Janish to make it 5-3.
"He's a great player," Trapasso said of Davis. "We were trying to play the percentages because we didn't want Davis to beat us again."
Chris Kolkhorst led off the bottom of the first with a double, took third when Janish grounded out to second and scored when Matt Ueckert grounded out to shortstop after an 11-pitch at-bat to put the defending national champions ahead, 1-0.
In the second, Rodgers reached on a two-out double and scored on Josh Rodriguez's ground single to center to make it 2-0.
After a one-out double by Janish in the third, Ueckert lined out to third, but Davis followed with his two-run home run that made it 4-0.
The Rainbows got to Niemann in the fourth. With one out, Brian Finegan and Matt Inouye got back-to-back singles before Mendoza's RBI single put runners at first and second. Rocky Russo was hit by a pitch to load the bases, setting up Sansaver's two-run double. Russo was thrown out on a relay from left to shortstop to home for the second out. Niemann then struck out Nate Thurber to end the inning.
The Rainbows would get a base runner in each of the next five innings by either hit, walk or error, but could not capitalize.
Hawai'i tried moving runners against Niemann, but saw three runners caught stealing. One of them, Greg Kish was caught when Isaac Omura took a pitch when he was supposed to protect the runner in the third inning with the hit-and-run on, Trapasso said. Omura then struck out to end the inning and was replaced at second base by Schafer Magana in the bottom of the third. Trapasso said Omura was replaced for missing the hit-and-run sign.
