Feb. 4, 2006
HONOLULU - For the second straight night, the University of Hawai'i scored the go-ahead run late in the contest and went on to defeat San Diego State, this time by a score of 9-7 Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium in Honolulu. It was the third consecutive win for the Rainbows (3-0) in the season-opening series with the Aztecs (0-3).
As opposed to the first two contests between the teams, it was the home side that got on the board first, scoring a pair of runs in the opening frame on four hits sandwiched around a walk off SDSU starter Cody Campbell.
The Aztecs quickly countered those runs, taking the lead in the top of the second as they scored three times on back-to-back doubles by Curt Mendoza and Brock Ungricht, a walk to Jordan Swaydan, an RBI single by Nick Romero and a wild pitch by UH starter Mark Rodrigues.
After Hawai'i regained a 6-4 lead at the end of four innings, San Diego State fought back to tie the game with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
A ground out by Mendoza in the fifth scored Mike Willeford, who had led off the frame with a walk, In the sixth, a leadoff double by Swaydan was followed by a fly ball to center that moved him to third and a ground out to first by Joe Scaperotta that brought him home to make it a 6-6 contest.
The Rainbows took the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth, scoring an unearned run off SDSU reliever Justin Lynch. It was the first career appearance for the redshirt freshman, who suffered the loss to fall to 0-1.
UH's Tyler Davis (1-0), in his second outing of the series, went the final four innings to pick up the win. Davis allowed just two hits and one unearned run while striking out three.
The Rainbows added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh off SDSU hurler Ronnie Lindsey, who was making his first appearance since his freshman season of 2003 after missing the past two years due to injury.
The Aztecs scored a consolation run in the eighth on an RBI double by Scaperotta that scored Romero, who had reached safely on an error.
Junior center fielder Quintin Berry led the Aztec offense on the night with three hits including double while Paul Smyth and Nick Romero collected two hits apiece.
San Diego State and Hawai'i conclude their four-game series Saturday afternoon with a contest scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. (HST). That game can be heard live on the Internet at www.goaztecs.com with Alan Horton calling the play-by-play.
Hawai'i 9, San Diego State 7SDSU 032 011 010 - 7 11 3UH 201 301 20x - 9 12 2Campbell, Suwyn (3), Miller (4), Lynch (6), Lindsey (7), Matthews (8) and SwaydanRodrigues, Davis (6) and LopezW - Davis (1-0)L - Lynch (0-1)Sv - NoneHR - NoneAtt. - 1724Time - 3:16