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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, March 14, 2009

FIVE IN A ROW
'Bows on roll, beat Lions for fifth in a row

Photo gallery: Hawaii vs. Loyola Marymount baseball

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Loyola's Ollie Enos was out on a force play at second, but his slide interferred with UH second baseman Shane Hoey's throw to first and the batter was called out for a double play in the fourth.

REBECCA BREYER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Nate Klein

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Luck was on Hawai'i's side last night in a 3-2 win against Loyola Marymount.

But the Rainbows (8-6), winners of five in a row, won't know just how lucky until today or possibly Monday.

Three walks and a two-out error gave UH three unearned runs in the eighth inning in overcoming a 2-0 deficit to the Lions (8-9) before 1,482 at Les Murakami Stadium. The game was delayed 35 minutes with two outs in the top of the ninth because of rain.

Hawai'i starting pitcher Nate Klein left the game trailing 2-0 with two outs in the bottom of the sixth after running a 1-0 count on Trevor Gee. The right-hander experienced some discomfort in this right elbow, the same one that he had Tommy John surgery on three seasons ago.

"He felt some tightness in his elbow," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "They don't think it's ligament. It might be a forearm strain in the muscle, but it's too early to tell. We'll see how it feels tomorrow then we'll try to get him to see the doc on Monday and get an MRI and go from there.

"Hopefully, it's just something that will shut him down for a couple of weeks, but it's going to be a big (loss) to overcome if he's out for any longer than that."

In the top of the sixth, Klein retired Ryan Wheeler, whose two-run homer in the third put LMU ahead, on a fly to left. After Angelo Songco lined a single off second baseman Shane Hoey's glove, Ollie Enos popped out to second. Klein's first pitch to Gee was a ball and then catcher Landon Hernandez went straight to the mound before Trapasso signaled to home plate umpire Kevin Daugherty that he was making a injury visit. That's when Connor Little was summoned from the bullpen.

Little pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings for the victory.

Trapasso said Klein started feeling the discomfort from a couple pitches before the pitch to Gee.

"He didn't feel a pop or anything like that you look for that really scares you," Trapasso said. "The guy's had Tommy John, so the ligament's bionic, but the muscle around it may have fatigued. But we'll have to wait and see."

Lions starter Ernie Cho (1-2) walked six, while allowing only two hits with five strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. He walked Matt Roquemore and Sean Montplaisir to start the UH eighth. Both advanced on Greg Garcia's sacrifice. It appeared Cho might escape the jam when Roquemore was thrown out at the plate when Kolten Wong reached on a fielder's choice to first.

With runners at the corners, Cho walked Vinnie Catricala on four pitches to load the bases. Cho was pulled for Jordan McClintick, who got Kevin Macdonald to hit a medium roller to shortstop Shon Roe, who misplayed the ball, allowing two runs to score with Catricala taking third. McClintick's first pitch to Jeffrey Van Doornum was wild, allowing Catricala to score the go-ahead run. Van Doornum eventually struck out, but the damage was done.

Still, the snake-bit Lions, who have lost seven in a row, had UH on its toes in the top of the ninth against Little. With one out, Jonathan Johnson walked and Roe singled to put runners at first and second. Little was pulled for Josh Slaats to face Kyle Straker. Then a downpour started the rain delay.

But when play resumed, UH's luck continued. Slaats first pitch was behind Straker, but struck the bat for a foul. Then on an 0-1 count, the Lions tried a double steal, but UH catcher Hernandez threw out Johnson at third for the second out.

"I was very surprised," Hernandez said of the steal attempt, "especially (the Lions) being down."

Slaats got Straker swinging on the next pitch, a low and away slider, to end the game and earn his first save.

"It was supposed to be a purpose pitch, but he ended up swinging at it," Slaats said. "I guess it was close enough (to swing at)."

Cho walked two in the first inning, but escaped with an inning-ending double play, walked another in the third and got out with another double play. He was no-hitting UH through 4 2/3 innings when Roquemore hit a chopper to shortstop Roe for a single. A TV replay, however, showed the throw beat Roquemore by a half step. To be sure, Wong hit a one-out double in the sixth, but Cho stranded him by retiring the next two batters. Of the 23 outs he recorded, 15 were by grounders.

"We were lucky," Trapasso said. "There's no way around that. But we got good pitching to keep us in the game, but we got some walks, got some breaks with the error. Apparently, it was just our night. Slaats comes in there, the first pitch he throws is behind the guy and hits off his bat. It's a tough one for Loyola, but we talked about it. We gave away a game in Minnesota so we needed to try to find a way to steal one, to try to even things out, so obviously that's one tonight."

The Rainbows will start Jared Alexander tonight against LMU's Alex Gillingham. Since Alexander is on a 75- to 80-pitch limit, the Rainbows will have to have some relievers other than Little (57 pitches last night) and Sam Spangler (41 on Thursday) available.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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