HONOLULU – The University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (26-17, 9-7 WAC) fell to the Louisiana Tech (23-18, 7-9) 5-1 in front of a crowd of 2,406 at Les Murakami Stadium Thursday. Jayson Kramer (4-4) pitched a complete-game, allowing just two earned runs, but took the loss. Jeb Stefan (4-5) got the win for Tech, allowing just one run in 7.2 innings.

 

Ryan Morford was 1-for-4 with a solo home run to lead the offensive effort. Matt Roquemore added a 2-for-2 game with a walk while Landon Hernandez doubled. Kolten Wong had his 16-game hitting streak snapped, going 0-for-3 with one hit-by-pitch.

 

The Bulldogs put up the first run of the game in the top of the second, going ahead 1-0.  LTU got it to 4-0 on a three-run homer by Mark Threlkeld, which came one at bat after an error with two outs, in the top of the fourth.

 

The Rainbows threatened in the fifth as Wong led off the inning by reaching on an error. Hernandez then doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs. But UH couldn't capitalize, stranding the two runners in scoring position to keep it at 4-0.

 

Louisiana Tech added another run in the top of the seventh to get it to 5-0. Morford then put the Rainbows on the board in the eighth, leading off the inning with a home run to get it back to 5-1.

 

But that was all that Hawai`i would come up with, losing the series-opener 5-1.

 

The two teams continue the series tomorrow at 6:35 p.m.

 

-UH-