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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, May 13, 2007

Mistakes thwart Rainbow comeback

Advertiser Staff

Mike Trapasso

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Not all errors were reflected on the scoreboard in Hawai'i's 7-5 loss to Nevada last night in Western Athletic Conference baseball.

Despite a nice effort against one of the league's better pitchers in Ryan Rodriguez, mental mistakes on defense and on offense hindered UH's comeback try in the opener of a three-game series at Peccole Park in Reno, Nev.

"I'm proud of the way we battled back offensively," UH coach Mike Trapasso said, "but I've got some real disappointing feelings about the way we played. We made nine mental mistakes that led to extra outs, directly led to runs (and) took runs off the board for us. But seven of them in particular were on defense. We haven't done that in a long time."

Rodriguez (8-5), who was sharp early, gave up five runs (three earned), 10 hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings for the third-place Wolf Pack (29-22 overall, 12-7 WAC). Matt Renfree pitched out of a one-out, bases loaded situation in the eighth and tagged on a scoreless ninth for his second save.

Ian Harrington (7-7) allowed six runs, 13 hits and two walks in five-plus innings for the fourth-place Rainbows (31-20, 9-10).

The Rainbows squandered a golden opportunity in the seventh with two runs already in. With runners at first and third with one out, Derek DuPree was caught leaning the wrong way and caught stealing for the second out. Justin Frash followed with a walk, but Rodriguez struck out Brandon Haislet to end the inning. Before DuPree was caught, Rodriguez had thrown to first five times.

"So you know the fake-to-third-throw-to-first move is coming," Trapasso said. "There's just no savvy there. It just wasn't smart. But that didn't cost us the game because we made eight other mistakes."

If the mistakes weren't enough, Hawai'i got a scare in the fifth when center fielder Haislet crashed into the wall chasing a fly by Jason Rodriguez that went for an inside-the-park home run. Although Haislet finished the game, he apparently bruised his sternum and ribs and is a game-time decision for today, Trapasso said.

David Ciarlo drove in three runs with two doubles for Nevada.

Kris Sanchez and Eli Christensen each had three hits for UH.

Nevada took a 2-0 lead in the second with two outs on the first of Ciarlo's doubles. The Wolf Pack added two more in the fourth, again with two outs, on a RBI double by Shaun Kort that was followed by a triple by Konrad Schmidt to make it 4-0.

Although UH cut its deficit in half in the fifth on Christensen's RBI single and Sanchez's RBI double in the sixth, the Wolf Pack got another pair in the sixth on Jason Rodriguez's homer.

The Rainbows pulled to 6-4 in the seventh on an RBI single by DuPree and a fielding error by right fielder Nick Sansone on the play that allowed another run to score after the hit. It was soon after that DuPree was caught stealing.

The Wolf Pack added a run in the bottom of the seventh when Trevor O'Sullivan reached on a throwing error by Christensen and two outs later scored on a liner by Ciarlo that went off the glove of Christensen and deflected toward shallow left for a double to make it 7-4.

The Rainbows pulled to 7-5 on Landon Hernandez's RBI single in the eighth.

Meanwhile, San Jose State clinched the last WAC tournament berth yesterday with a 10-5 win against New Mexico State (6-17), which was eliminated with the loss. The WAC tournament, set for May 24 to 27 in Reno, takes the top six teams. It is the second consecutive year the Aggies will not be part of the tournament.

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