HONOLULU – The University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (26-19, 9-9 WAC) fell to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (25-18, 10-9) 8-4 in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,567 at Les Murakami Stadium Saturday. Nate Klein (1-3) picked up the loss for UH while John Anderson (6-2) got the win for LTU. Kyle Roliard earned the save for the Bulldogs.

 

Kevin Macdonald led the way for UH, going 2-for-5 with a home run and two runs. Ryan Morford kept up his hot hitting, going 2-for-5 with a double and one RBI. Landon Hernandez added a 1-for-3 game with two RBI while Sean Montplaisir was 1-for-1 with a run and two walks.

 

Jesse Moore pitched well in relief, allowing no runs on four hits in 4.2 innings.

 

The Bulldogs got on the board early, scoring a run in the top of the second. UH answered in the bottom of the inning as Hernandez hit an RBI-single up the middle, tying it at 1-1.

 

The Rainbows then took the lead in the third inning as Morford doubled in a run, getting it to 2-1. LTU answered in the top of the fourth, hitting two solo home runs to go ahead 3-2. But Macdonald tied it again in the bottom of the fourth, leading off with a solo home run, tying it at 3-3.

 

Louisiana Tech then broke through in the top of the fifth, scoring five runs on six hits to open up an 8-3 edge.

 

Hawai`i tried to mount a comeback late in the game. But they were only able to score a run in the seventh while leaving seven runners on base in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings combined, falling by the final of 8-4.

 

The two teams conclude the series tomorrow at 1:05 p.m.

 

-UH-