Baseball 'Bows drop 7-2 decision to Pacific
Advertiser Staff
A freakish bases-clearing single broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning and sparked Pacific to a 7-2 win over Hawai'i yesterday in Stockton, Calif.
Brett Manning's two-out, high pop to shallow center dropped untouched when the ball was lost by UH fielders because its trajectory was higher than the lights at antiquated Billy Hebert Field. The Tigers (11-14), who snapped a seven-game losing streak, move to a new campus stadium next season, but it's small consolation for the Rainbows (13-13).
Trapasso
With two outs and the bases loaded, Manning lifted a fly into the darkness. Center fielder Matt Inouye charged in and shortstop Joe Spiers went out, but "they both had their hands up, saying they couldn't see it," UH coach Mike Trapasso said.
With all of the runners moving with two outs, they easily scored.
"When things are going how they're going for us, that's exactly the kind of things that happen," Trapasso said. "It's a Murphy's Law game. But we have to be better than scoring two runs."
Jason Harr (1-3) allowed two runs, one earned on Jeff Piaskowski's first home run of the season, on six hits and three walks with two strikeouts in seven innings. Josh Schmidt pitched the final two innings.
Colby Summer (1-2) gave up seven runs, but only two were earned because of four errors. He allowed eight hits and two walks with five strikeouts in 6á innings.
"Colby was solid," Trapasso said. "He was actually better than he has been his last couple starts."
Rich Olsen pitched the last 1 1/3 innings.
Hawai'i took a 1-0 lead in the third with the help of two Pacific errors, only to see Pacific tie it in the bottom of the fourth on Justin Baum's RBI double.
Manning's single broke the tie in the sixth. He later scored on Will Brindza's double to make it 5-1.
Piaskowski led off the seventh with a homer to make it 5-2. But in the bottom of the seventh, a pick-off throwing error by Summer and mishandling of the ball by Inouye allowed a run to score. Matt Berezay's run-scoring double made it 7-2.
Rainbow DH/third baseman Rocky Russo (.303 batting average), nursing a hamstring injury, sat out as a precaution because of the poor field conditions. He is expected to be ready for the Western Athletic Conference series at Fresno State starting tomorrow, Trapasso said.
Yesterday's start was delayed a little more than three hours because of rain. It was a makeup for the previous night's rainout.
• • •
