Hawai'i sweeps San Jose St. in baseball
Advertiser Staff
Matt Inouye's two out, solo home run in the top of the 11th inning lifted Hawai'i past San Jose State, 4-3, yesterday to cap a Western Athletic Conference series sweep at Blethen Field in San Jose, Calif.
It was the Rainbows' first road sweep since 2001 at UH-Hilo, but first on the Mainland since 1999 at Utah.
Inouye
"It's so difficult to sweep in this league," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "To do it on the road is even more difficult. To be able to do it the way things have been going for us, I'm proud of our guys. They played hard. Hopefully, we can build on it."
With the sweep, the Rainbows (21-23 overall, 8-10 WAC) sent the Spartans (20-18-1, 9-9) from second to third place since Friday. Rice (11-7) gained first place Saturday and remained there after its sweep of Louisiana Tech (7-11) with its 6-2 win yesterday. Meanwhile, Nevada (9-6) averted a sweep with an 8-2 win at Fresno State (7-8). With that combination, UH picked up 1 1/2 games in the standings and moved out of the conference cellar into fifth place, a game ahead of Louisiana Tech, but three behind the Owls. Nevada started the weekend in first, but fell to second.
Hawai'i had a 3-2 lead entering the bottom of the ninth when the Spartans forced extra innings with a two-out RBI single by Nate Corrick against Darrell Fisherbaugh. But with two outs in the top of the 11th, Inouye slugged his second homer of the season to left against Randy Waite (1-2), who pitched two innings, giving up two hits and a walk.
In the bottom of the 11th, Fisherbaugh allowed a one-out infield single to David Pierson, but retired Anthony Contreras on a fly to left and struck out Ryan Angel to end the game. Fisherbaugh (4-1) allowed three hits and struck out three in 2á innings.
The game began as a duel between starters Justin Costi of UH and Matt Winck of SJSU. Costi went 6¡, allowing two runs on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts, while Winck, who pitched two innings of relief Friday, went six-plus innings, allowing an unearned run and four hits with one strikeout.
The Spartans took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Corrick walked with one out, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Ricky Sauceda's single to center. But UH tied it in the sixth with the help of an error. Esteban Lopez led off with a single and reached second safely on Derek Dupree's bunt when Winck's throwing error to second pulled shortstop Contreras off the bag. After a wild pitch advanced the runners, Lopez scored on Joe Spiers' sacrifice fly to right.
The Spartans regained the lead in the seventh. Josh Thomas led off with a single and took second on Pierson's sacrifice. Costi was pulled for Steven Wright, who surrendered an RBI single to Contreras that put SJSU ahead, 2-1, before Ryan Angel grounded out to short and Corrick fouled out of first.
Steve Jones, who had blanked the Rainbows after inheriting a runner at first and a 2-2 count on Nate Thurber in the seventh, blew the lead in the top of the ninth. Isaac Omura led off with a single, advanced to second on pinch hitter Jon Hee's sacrifice and took third on Schafer Magana's single to center. Adam Roberts grounded a two-run double down the left field line to put UH ahead, 3-2, before Inouye and Lopez each grounded out to third.
But in the bottom of the ninth, Wright struck out pinch hitter Chris Williamee before giving up a single to center by Pierson and a flare single to left by Contreras. Fisherbaugh came in and stuck out Angel, but Corrick's single to right-center scored Pierson with the tying run before Brandon Fromm flied out to center to end the inning.
The Rainbows threatened in the 10th when they had runners at first and second with one out. Omura hit a grounder up the middle that shortstop Contreras snagged to throw him out as the runners advanced. Hee then lined out to third.
Fisherbaugh allowed an infield single with one out in the bottom of the 10th, but got Raul Campos to ground into an inning-ending double play to second baseman Omura.
"We have to continue to play well," Trapasso said. "If we swing the bat like we have the last couple games, we can (use this sweep as a turning point)."
The Rainbows resume WAC play with a three-game series against Nevada starting Thursday at Les Murakami Stadium.
