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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Hawaii to square off against No. 13 Stanford

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i will try to snap a six-game losing streak today against No. 13 Stanford at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond in Stanford, Calif.

Game time is 3 p.m., HST. It will be broadcast on ESPN 1420 AM.

The Rainbows (9-19) will have a climb to snap a six-game losing streak. This will be their sixth different nationally ranked opponent; they are 0-9 against five of them. The losses are against No. 1 Arizona State, No. 5 UC Irvine, No. 10 Long Beach State, No. 17 San Diego and No. 22 Michigan.

The Cardinal (13-7) beat visiting LBSU, 9-3, last night.

Hawai'i will staff today's game with Matt Daly (3-2, 5.67 ERA), who should be well-rested having made two relief appearances totaling one inning in the Sacramento State series, in which he gave up four runs.

"He's got a fresh arm, but we're going to staff the game with the guys we've got that are the most fresh," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "If Daly's throwing well, I'll have him out there for a little while."

Daly still battles control issues with 28 walks in 33 1/3 innings.

Others available are Nick Rhodes, Jayson Kramer, Harrison Kuroda, Josh Schneider and Sam Spangler, Trapasso said.

Stanford enters the game with a four-game win streak. Its common opponents with UH so far this season are LSBU and Sacramento State; both teams swept three- and four-game series against UH. The Cardinal lost to Sacramento State.

The Cardinal is led by center fielder Sean Ratliff (.333) and catcher Jason Castro (.346), who share the team lead each with six home runs and 20 RBIs.

Hawai'i's offense punched out 16 hits in a 10-6 loss Sunday at Sacramento State. But its 3.9 runs per game is still the worst among Western Athletic Conference teams.

Center fielder Brandon Haislet and second baseman Jon Hee are the only two regulars batting over .300 with plus-.400 on-base percentages. They lead the team in scoring with 18 and 17 runs, respectively.

Shortstop Greg Garcia (ankle) is improving.

"I don't know if he'll be ready to go (today), but I'd say he'd be close to it," Trapasso said.

But Trapasso isn't in any rush because of the way Hee has handled switching to shortstop from second base and the way Ryan Morford has been swinging the bat of late.

"I'm fine with them staying in the middle for right now," Trapasso said. "But Greg could play second base because it's less of a running position. We need to get (Garcia) going and he's getting close. I definitely think he's ready for this weekend."

The Rainbows resume conference play with a four-game series at San Jose State (14-10, 5-6) starting Friday. The doubleheader in the series will be played that day.

NOTES

Associate Athletics Director John McNamara said he is looking into pushing the starting times back for home dates with doubleheaders. The Rainbows routinely draw their best crowds on Saturday nights, so he would like to set the second game start at about 6:35 p.m.

The Rainbows are not affected by closure of Aloha Airlines, as they were booked on Hawaiian Airlines for this trip.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.