HONOLULU – The University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (17-9) shutout the San Jose State Spartans (19-6) 3-0 in its Western Athletic Conference opener in front of a crowd of 3,492 at Les Murakami Stadium Friday. Jayson Kramer (2-3) got the win, pitching 8.0 shutout innings, allowing just six hits. Lenny Linsky got the save while David Berner (5-1) took the loss for SJSU.

 

Kramer had his first combined shutout as a starter with his third combined shutout overall. The 8.0 innings pitched tied his longest career outing.

 

Vinnie Catricala came up big, going 1-for-3 with a home run and two RBI. Ryan Morford added a 2-for-3 game with one RBI and a run while Greg Garcia had a triple and a run.

 

Garcia led off the bottom of the fourth with a triple to right field, before scoring on a RBI-single by Morford, getting UH on the scoreboard first.

 

San Jose State threatened in the third and fourth innings, putting runners in scoring position. But the Rainbows got a timely double play in the third with runners on first and second. In the fourth, SJSU had runners on second and third with just one out. But Kramer picked up a big strike out before inducing a ground out, keeping the Spartans off the board.

 

Catricala then had the big blast in the bottom of the seventh, launching a two-run home run to left-center, extending the Hawai`i lead to 3-0.

 

SJSU again threatened in the bottom of the ninth as Corey Valine hit a ground-rule double to put runners on second and third. But Linsky got the final Spartan batter to fly out to center, preserving the shutout.

 

The two teams continue the series with a doubleheader tomorrow, starting at 3:05 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium. The first game is scheduled for nine innings with the second scheduled to be just seven innings.