Wolverines rock Rainbows on Arendse’s 2 home runs

The magical .500 number continues to elude the Hawaii baseball team.

Kevin Arendse hit two solo home runs to center field and Dan Christensen tossed a complete-game victory as Utah Valley knocked off Hawaii 5-1 in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 853 last night.

The Rainbows (26-28) entered last night's meeting with the Wolverines (16-35-1) one game under .500. It was Hawaii's fourth attempt at evening its overall record in the last four weeks, but like the previous three tries, it couldn't come through.

"The people who came here to watch this game and bought a ticket and actually paid to see these guys play deserve a better effort than what we gave them tonight," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "We had no intensity. We had no toughness. It was the last thing I would have expected out of this group for what they have been through the last eight weeks."

The Rainbows have been below .500 since March 1 and are in danger of suffering their first non-winning season under Trapasso since his first year as head coach when the team went 16-40.

Nick Rhodes threw 99 pitches in 7 1/3 innings, but left after giving up an RBI single to Adam Openshaw that extended Utah Valley's lead to 3-1. Reliever Jayson Kramer replaced Rhodes and surrendered consecutive RBI singles to Jake Rickenbach and pinch hitter Tyler Garretson to give Utah Valley a four-run advantage.

"He got ground balls and if you're getting ground balls, that's all I'm asking for," Trapasso said of Kramer.

Rhodes allowed 11 hits, including both of Arendse's home runs, and walked one while striking out seven to take the loss and fall to 4-6 for the year.

"I made a couple of mistakes today," Rhodes said. "I left two fastballs up to (Arendse) and that was the difference in the game."

Christensen entered the game 1-7 with a 9.38 ERA, but didn't pitch anything like it. The 6-foot-5, left-handed senior struck out two and walked four and didn't allow a runner to reach third base after the third inning.

Eighteen of the 27 outs by Hawaii came on fly balls.

"That's the most embarrassing offensive outing we've had all year by far," Trapasso said.

Arendse tagged Rhodes for his first home run of the game when he took a 1-0 offering from the left-hander deep over the center-field wall to lead off the second inning. Utah Valley had a chance to do more damage, but Dick Bargewell was thrown out trying to advance to second on a single as Rhodes got out of the second only allowing the one run.

Hawaii tied it 1-all in the bottom of the second as Greg Garcia drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs to score Vinnie Catricala. Jon Hee got ahead 3-0, but flied out to center to end the inning.

Arendse's second homer of the game went to the same exact part of the park as Brandon Haislet's leaping attempt at an over-the-wall catch came up just short. The blast, Arendse's fourth homer of the season, put the Wolverines up 2-1 in the sixth.

Hawaii will try to even the series today at 6:35 p.m. Josh Schneider (4-2, 5.35 ERA) will take the mound for the 'Bows.

Game Notes

Pat "Blazer" Brown was awarded the Chuck Leahey Award prior to last night's game. The 78-year-old Brown was a member of last year's senior softball USA team that won the friendship bracket in the All Japan International Senior Softball Championships. ... Hee went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to nine games. Hee's two hits gives him 210 for his career.