Thurber's ninth-inning double lifts UH over HPU
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
Nate Thurber's one-out, hit-and-run double to left scored Creighton Kahoali'i in the bottom of the ninth to lift Hawai'i over Hawai'i Pacific, 8-7, last night in a non-conference makeup baseball game.
The Rainbows (27-16) completed the season series sweep (2-0) of the Sea Warriors (27-27) before a Les Murakami Stadium gathering of 348, who skipped American Idol. This was a makeup for a March 13 rainout. It was HPU's season finale.
Thurber drove an inside fastball off Sean Paiva (6-3) down the left-field line to score Kahoali'i, who drew a walk after falling behind 0-2.
"It felt good (to beat HPU)," said Thurber.
The Rainbows, short of outfielders with injuries to Greg Kish (ankle) and Robbie Wilder (hamstring) and Josh Green (he had to fly to Maui to bring back his ailing infant daughter), were forced to use Thurber in left field. It was his season debut on defense after being used solely as a designated hitter.
The Rainbows also were forced to use two-thirds of their starting rotation in relief. Ricky Bauer pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Stephen Bryant (7-3) contributed a perfect ninth. They will start Friday and Saturday, respectively, in this weekend's Western Athletic Conference series with first-place and No. 3-ranked Rice.
"Because of the adversity we faced, this might have been our biggest win of the year," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We didn't give up and continued to fight. This was a character win."
The Division II Sea Warriors came back from a 5-3 deficit after six innings with a four-run seventh against Chuck Withers. An RBI groundout by Tyler Ward pulled HPU to 5-4 and Alika Kuraoka's RBI single tied the score at 5, setting up Ikaika DuPont's two-run home run to right-center that was followed by a triple to right-center by Chase Nakamura. Bauer came in, but walked Brandon Sato before getting Geoff Say to fly out to right.
Hawai'i Pacific tagged UH starter Steven Wright (four innings, three runs, two earned) in the first inning on Tyler Ward's two-run double. UH came back with three in the third against HPU starter Kai Austin, whose throwing error after fielding a grounder led to one of the runs, while Rocky Russo's RBI single and Kahoali'i's sacrifice fly accounted for the other two.
The Sea Warriors tied the score in the fourth when Sato doubled and took third on center fielder Matt Inouye's fielding error on the play. Sato scored on a wild pitch.
Hawai'i snapped the tie in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI double by Isaac Omura and squeeze by Andrew Sansaver.
The Rainbows held the lead until HPU's four-run seventh, then tied it 7-7 in the eighth on a Brian Finegan RBI single and Inouye's RBI double.
After Byrant's perfect ninth, Russo started the bottom of the ninth by flying out to right. Kahoali'i walked and took off on a 1-0 pitch that Thurber lined down the left-field line for the game-winner.
It was a tough loss for HPU, which dropped to 2-25 against UH since they started playing each other in 1983. The last time HPU beat UH was in 1986; the other time was 1985. Both times Allan Sato, now HPU's coach, won those games.
"It's always good to play 'big brother,' " Allan Sato said of playing UH. "We're appreciative of Mike (Trapasso) giving us games. I don't know if it helps or hurts them, but it helps us."
Since HPU is Division II, the wins would be discounted during evaluations for NCAA tournament berths.
