HONOLULU – The University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (31-23) fell to the Utah Valley Wolverines (17-35) 12-1 in front of a near sellout crowd of 4,254 at Les Murakami Stadium Saturday. Nate Klein (2-4) took the loss for UH while Justin Smith (8-4) struck out 10 in 8.1 innings to get the win for UVU.

 

Sean Montplaisir tripled and scored to lead UH while Greg Garcia added a double.

 

Utah Valley jumped on the Rainbows early, scoring two runs in the top of the first. UVU then added two runs in the fourth and another in the sixth to get it to 5-0 before Hawai`i answered.

 

In the bottom of the seventh, Montplaisir led off with a triple before scoring UH's only run on a balk.

 

But the Wolverines ran away with it in the late innings, scoring two runs in the eighth and five more in the ninth to make the final 12-1. In the win, UVU's Chris Benson hit for the cycle, going 4-for-4 with four RBI and four runs.

 

The series concludes with the regular season finale tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. UH will also have “Senior Day” activities after the game, honoring the four Rainbow seniors, Shane Hoey, Ryan Morford, Jared Alexander, Landon Hernandez and Jayson Kramer.

 

-UH-