Box Score

FRESNO, Calif. - The No. 24 University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (41-13) shutout the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (32-24) 8-0 in the first game of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament at Pete Beiden Field Thursday. Steven Wright (11-2) got the win, allowing no runs on four hits with no walks while tying his career-high with 13 strikeouts. Luke Burnett (3-6) took the loss for the Bulldogs.

Matthew Inouye went 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and two runs. Esteban Lopez added a 2-for-2 game with a double, a run and a RBI. Luis Avila was 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs while Elijah Christensen went 1-for-3 with a run and a RBI.

Christensen put the `Bows on the board in the bottom of the second inning, following a ground-rule double by Lopez with a sacrifice fly, scoring Inouye, to make it 1-0. Inouye and Lopez then drove in back-to-back runs in the bottom of the fourth to push their edge to 3-0.

Avila then blasted a home run far past the leftfield fence in the sixth to make it 4-0. That would be more than enough for Wright, who didn't allow a runner past first base until the eighth inning, when Brian Rike hit a ground-rule double to leftfield.

The Rainbows then broke it open in the bottom of the eighth. Inouye started the scoring with a RBI-double down the left line. Inouye then scored on an error before Joseph Spiers hit a two-run single down the rightfield line, giving them a 8-0 lead. Tyler Davis came in and pitched a perfect ninth inning to close out the victory.

Hawai`i will now play the feature game tomorrow against the winner of the San Jose State-Nevada game at 7 p.m. (4 p.m. HST).

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