Box Score

HONOLULU - The University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (23-9, 1-3 WAC) outlasted the San Jose State Spartans (20-11, 3-2) 6-5 in 13 innings in front of a crowd of 3,157 at the Les Murakami Stadium Saturday. Matthew Daly (5-0) got the victory while Tim Jimenez (0-1) took the loss for SJSU.

Esteban Lopez carried the Rainbow offense, going 4-for-6 with two doubles, a run and a RBI. Justin Frash added a 2-for-4 game with a run while Joseph Spiers went 2-for-5 with a run and a stolen base. Matthew Inouye went 2-for-6 with a run.

Ironically, it was Jorge Franco, who came in as a pinch runner for Lopez in the 12th inning, that supplied the heroics in the 13th. Franco hit a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Frash for the victory.

The Rainbows got on the board first as Jonathan Hee and Spiers scored on back-to-back passed balls in the fifth inning, making it 2-0. Brian Chase tied the score in the top of the sixth, blasting a two-run home run to left field.

That was how it stayed until the bottom of the eighth. Lopez doubled in Inouye to drive in the go-ahead run, before scoring on a wild pitch to push the 'Bows to a 4-2 edge.

But the Spartans wouldn't go away as Sam Hall blasted a two-run triple in the top of the ninth, again tying the score, at 4-4, sending it into extra innings.

Hawai`i gave up numerous chances, leaving two runners on base in the 10th, 11th and 12th innings. In the top of the 12th, SJSU scored a run to give them their first lead at 5-4. But UH responded, as Landon Hernandez smacked a pinch-hit, RBI single, driving in Franco to tie the score at five.

Daly shut down the Spartans in the top of the 13th to set up the dramatic finish. Frash led off the inning with a walk. He then advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Luis Avila, who was safe at first on an error. Inouye then hit a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over before Franco came up with his sac fly to win the game.

The two teams will close out the series tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. at the Les Murakami Stadium

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