Updated at 7:00 p.m., Saturday, May 12, 2007
Nevada tops Hawai'i in WAC baseball, 7-5
Advertiser Staff
David Ciarlo drove in three runs and Jason Rodriguez hit a two-run inside-the-park home run to back the pitching of Ryan Rodriguez to lead Nevada over Hawai'i, 7-5, tonight in Western Athletic Conference baseball at Peccole Park in Reno, Nev.Rodriguez (8-5) gave up five runs (three earned), 10 hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings for the Wolf Pack (29-22 overall, 12-7 WAC). Matt Renfree added 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief for his second save.
Ian Harrington (7-7) allowed six runs, 13 hits and two walks with four strikeouts in five-plus innings for UH (31-20, 9-10).
The Wolf Pack took a 2-0 lead in the second. With two outs, Mike Hale reached on an infield single and took second on Harrington's throwing error on the play. Hale took third on Chris Siewert's single to short and both scored on David Ciarlo's double to center.
They added two more in the fourth, again with two outs. Jason Rodriguez reached on a single to first and scored on Shaun Kort's double to right. Konrad Schmidt's triple to left made it 4-0.
The Rainbows scored in the fifth. Kris Sanchez led off with a single and took second when Vinnie Catricala reached safely on a fielding error by third baseman Jason Rodriguez. After Evan Zimny flied out to left, the runners advanced when Landon Hernandez grounded out to third. Eli Christensen then grounded a single to left to score Sanchez and send Catricala to third. But Jon Hee grounded out to short to end the inning with UH pulling to 4-1.
Hawai'i got another run in the sixth when Brandon Haislet walked with two outs and scored on Sanchez's double to right to make it 4-2.
Nevada added two more in the sixth. Jason Sadoin doubled to left-center and scored on Jason Rodriguez's inside-the-park home run to center in which center fielder Haislet crashed into the wall and was down for a while. But he remained in the game. Harrington was pulled after falling behind 2-0 on Kort. Josh Schneider threw two balls for the walk charged to Harrington before Schmidt grounded to second for a double play. Baker Krukow struck out, but Nevada increased its lead to 6-2.
Hawai'i pulled to 6-4 in the seventh. With one out, Hernandez, Christensen and Hee singled in succession to load the bases. Derek DuPree then singled to right to score Hernandez, but the right fielder had trouble fielding the ball, allowing Christensen to score and Hee to take third. But DuPree was caught in a rundown breaking too early on a pitch and was caught stealing, as Hee held third. Justin Frash walked, but Haislet struck out to end the inning.
Nevada added a run in the seventh when Trevor O'Sullivan reached on Christensen's throwing error, took second on a sacrifice and one out later, scored on Ciarlo's double on a liner off Christensen's glove to make it 7-4.
Hawai'i continued to chip away in the eighth. Sanchez led off with a double to right before Catricala struck out. Zimny walked and was lifted for pinch runner Matt Roquemore. Hernandez's RBI single to left moved Roquemore to second to make it 7-5. That ended Ryan Rodriguez's night for Matt Renfree, who allowed a single to Christensen to load the bases. Hee reached first when he hit a grounder back to the mound for a force at home to reload the bases, but Jorge Franco struck out to leave the bases loaded.
