Shockers avoid sweep

Wichita State managed to leave town avoiding its first four-game sweep ever in Hawaii.

The Shockers pushed across enough runs early before Hawaii freshman Lawrence Chew shut them out over the final 62⁄3 innings, holding on for a 4-2 victory on Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium.

Hawaii (9-4) failed to match its longest winning streak in 14 years and missed out on a second straight series sweep. Right-hander David Longville allowed all four runs in 21⁄3 innings, and the Rainbows couldn’t score after the fourth despite getting the leadoff man on base in each of the final five frames.

"We didn’t execute a couple of situations and feel like we should still be playing because of two runs we left off the board," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "But we also did a lot of good things, not just this series, but today as well."

Longville, who hadn’t given up a run all year, never seemed to find himself early. After Wichita State (6-6) stranded two men on base in the first, the Shockers scored twice in the second on a double by Garrett Bayliff and an error by third baseman Collin Bennett.

Casey Gillaspie and Don Lambert singled in the fourth to end Longville’s day, and Dayne Parker’s RBI single was one of only two hits given up by Chew, who wound up pitching the rest of the way.

Longville (1-1), who had warmed up in the bullpen in each of the previous two games, gave up five hits and walked two.

"That’s why I was (only) hoping he could give us three or four (innings) tops," Trapasso said. "You could pretty much see he was underneath all his pitches, and if you’re up against these guys, you’re going to get in trouble."

Chew did everything he could to give Hawaii ample opportunities to get back in the game. After allowing the single to Parker, he sat down the next 10 in a row before Bayliff’s base hit led off the seventh. After an intentional walk to Johnny Coy, who didn’t drive in a single run against UH after posting 20 RBIs in five games last week, Chew got Gillaspie to ground into a double play to end the inning.

"I thought I did pretty good getting ahead in the count, throwing a lot of strikes, and getting them to swing early counts," said Chew, who walked one and struck out one.

Hawaii’s Kaeo Aliviado hit an RBI single, and Zack Swasey had two extra-base hits, including a triple to lead off the sixth.

The Rainbows failed to score when Swasey was thrown out at the plate trying to tag up on a flyball to left hit by Aliviado.

Kris Gardner (3-0) allowed six hits and two runs in five innings to earn the victory.

Closer Cale Elam came on in the seventh with a runner on third and two outs to get Breland Almadova to bounce out to short.

He got Swasey to ground into a double play to end the eighth and struck out pinch hitter Joe Goldenberg with a runner on first to end the game, earning his first save.

"(Cale) doesn’t usually go more than two innings, but I wasn’t sure if we were going to get that last out if we stayed with what we had," Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson said about going to his closer in the seventh. "He’s a really good prospect."

After questioning his team’s abilities following Saturday’s third straight loss, Stephenson still wasn’t happy after Sunday’s win, giving a lot of credit to the Rainbows.

"I told (Trapasso) if they play like that against everybody, they’re going to get a lot of wins," Stephenson said. "Overall I have to be very disappointed. All of their left-handers gave us fits and I don’t know why because we have a lot of right-handed hitters."

Bennett’s error was the only one of the series for UH, which bumped its RPI up more than 70 spots into the top 30 in the latest rankings.

Pi‘ikea Kitamura had his team-leading sixth multi-hit game of the season, and Stephen Ventimilia singled in the sixth to keep alive his streak of reaching base in every game this season.

"We just couldn’t get anything to fall (today)," said Ventimilia, who leads the team with 11 runs scored. "We’re not satisfied with (winning the series); we know we need to get better, and Central Michigan is going to be a good team coming in."

The Chippewas (4-7), who have won the Mid-American Conference West Division the past two years, split four games at the McNeese State round-robin over the weekend in Lake Charles, La.

The two will meet for a four-game series beginning Wednesday.