HONOLULU - The University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (21-19, 3-13 WAC) defeated the Fresno State Bulldogs (21-18, 7-6 WAC) 3-0 in front of a crowd of 2,674 at the Les Murakami Stadium Friday.
Ricky Bauer (3-3) went 8.0 innings, giving up just five hits and no walks while tying a career-high in strikeouts (seven) to get the win. Cody Smith (6-4) got the loss for Fresno State.
Richard Olsen pitched a perfect inning of relief to earn his first save of the season.
Matthew Inouye led the way for UH, driving in two of the three runs in the game. Jaziel Mendoza had the other RBI, finishing with a 2-for-4 game with a double. Isaac Omura added a 2-for-4 game with a double while Brent Cook went 1-for-3 with a triple and a run scored.
The two starting pitchers were dominating for the first five innings, allowing a combined five hits. The Bulldogs threatened in the second as they had runners on the corners with just one out. But Bauer got Brandon Marcelli to strike out, starting a strike out-throw out double play, that went 2-4-3-2, to end the inning.
The 'Bows would get on the board in the sixth inning as Inouye reached on a sacrifice squeeze bunt, scoring Brian Finegan.
Fresno State would again threaten in the seventh with runners on second and third with no outs. Bauer would shut them down again, recording three straight outs on a strikeout, a leaping catch by Omura and a ground out, keeping the Bulldogs scoreless.
The Rainbows would add two runs on another sacrifice bunt by Inouye and Mendoza's RBI-double in the eighth inning making the final 3-0.
The two teams will play again tomorrow at 6:35 p.m. at the Les Murakami Stadium with Christopher George set to pitch for Hawai`i.
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