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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, April 14, 2006

It could rain on 'Bows in Nevada

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Steven Wright

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Dark clouds seem to be following the Hawai'i baseball team on this road trip.

The Rainbows resume Western Athletic Conference play today with a three-game series at Nevada.

Hawai'i (25-11 overall, 3-5 WAC) is coming off Tuesday's rainout at California. It was warm when the Rainbows worked out yesterday, UH coach Mike Trapasso said. But that is expected to change.

"(Former Rainbow) Josh Green came over for practice and said today's going to be the last good day because there's going to be rain tomorrow that's going to turn to snow by Sunday," Trapasso said.

Hawai'i already had two games canceled by rain and lost one home WAC game that will be made up at Louisiana Tech next month. Nevada has had five games canceled by rain.

The Rainbows will try to break their third two-game losing streak of the season when they play the Wolf Pack (15-16, 5-4) at renovated Peccole Park. It now has lights and is covered with FieldTurf, "so we'll play regardless of the weather," Trapasso said.

Nevada has historically been hard on UH, which is 2-13 there. The light air can make life hard on pitchers.

"In any other park, what would be fly ball out can be a home run here," Trapasso said. "What you have to do is always make sure that you eliminate the freebies, the walks and errors, so if you give up a cheap home run, it's a solo home run.

"(Also), we've got to be able to swing the bats like we have in the past, not like we did last week (in losing 2 of 3 at Fresno State) and we have to be able to get starting pitching like we have in the past, not like we did last Saturday and Sunday (in the losses to FSU)."

Trapasso will stay with the same starting rotation: Steven Wright (5-2, 3.32) today, Justin Costi (4-1, 4.82) tomorrow and Ian Harrington (4-2, 4.37) Sunday.

Relief pitcher Rich Olsen, who missed the FSU series because of a tender forearm, is a game-day decision. Trapasso has until the lineup exchange with umpires to determine his 25-player roster for the series.

The Wolf Pack will counter with an all-right-handed rotation: Tim Schoeninger (3-2, 3.59), Travis Sutton (3-2, 4.05) and Ryan Rodriguez (4-4, 4.91).

Nevada packs some punch, possibly because of its ball park, with 36 home runs. Right fielder Shawn Scobee has 12 of them with a team-leading 30 RBIs and is batting .364. First baseman Terry Walsh has six home runs and 27 RBIs.

The Wolf Pack average 5.6 runs per game to UH's 5.9.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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