Scobee finishes brilliant career

FRESNO, Calif. - Senior Shawn Scobee ended his brilliant two-year career by slamming his 22nd homer of the season in the Wolf Pack's 10-2 semifinal loss to Hawai'i Saturday night at the Western Athletic Conference championships at Beiden Field.

Scobee ended his Nevada career with 40 homers, third on the all-time list, which is impressive since all the other players in the top-10 played three or four years at Nevada.

Scobee was so upset with the two losses on Saturday that he didn't want to be interviewed.

No problem. Coach Gary Powers and teammate Matt Bowman of Dayton were more than happy to heap praise on him.

"Look at the guys he passed in two short years," Powers said. "I'm really proud of the way he matured as a player and how he handled himself during the course of this year.

"We're going to miss him a lot. He's a tremendous athlete. Hopefully he'll get a chance to go play next year, and if he does, have some success."

Bowman, who hit in front of Scobee all year and benefited from Scobee's presence, said he'll miss his teammate.

"That's pretty unbelievable," Bowman said when he was told how many homers Scobee finished with. "Watching him hit is something special. I'm going to miss him hitting behind me."

HAWAI'I BOUNCES BACK

The Rainbows roared back from their disastrous 10-3 loss to Nevada on Friday night to eliminate Louisiana Tech 8-2 on Saturday.

Lefty Ian Harrington went the distance, scattering nine hits and striking out five to send his team into the semifinals. His ability to go the full distance leaves Hawai'i with plenty of pitching.

"I think it was very important," Harrington said. "I didn't go into the game thinking that way. This helps the team a lot.

"It was a lot of fun out there. They started to hit the ball a little bit late (seventh and eighth innings), but the defense made some big plays behind me."

Hawai'i manufactured its first run when Robbie Wilder singled, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, to third on a wild pitch and scored on an infield out. The Rainbows made it 3-0 in the third on Derek DuPree's run-scoring single and a sacrifice fly by Justin Frash.

Two errors in the fourth enabled Hawai'i to boost its lead to 4-0 against Tech's Jericho Jones. Tech did close to 5-2 on RBIs by Marvin Hudson and Brady Bascle, but Hawai'i put it out of reach with three in the top of the ninth, two on a single by Esteban Lopez.

HOW FAR CAN THEY GO?

You have to wonder how far Fresno State can go without shortstop Christian Vitters, who broke his finger when he was hit by a pitch in Friday's 3-2 win over San Jose State.

Vitters was hit by a Branden Dewing fastball in the first inning, yet continued to play. He has his left hand in a cast, and coach Mike Batesole, who found out about the injury Friday night, said he didn't know when Vitters would play again.

Batesole said the Bulldogs are used to playing without starters.

"We've had a lot of players sustain injuries," said Batesole, who noted that Nick Moresi, pitcher Brandon Miler, third baseman Beau Mills and Todd Sandell have missed significant action at one time or another, yet the Bulldogs have persevered and prospered.

ETC...

Two of the six umpires working the tournament - Darrel Mason and Joe Burleson - have been selected for this year's College World Series in Omaha, Neb. It will be Burleson's third trip to the prestigious event ... Nevada's streak of scoring in double digits ended at four and it's nine-game win streak also ended ... Batesole had a terse "we'll see" when asked if Mills, who was booted off the team recently for academic reasons, would be part of the team next year... Williams and Bowman led Nevada against Fresno State with three hits apiece. Williams also had three hits against the Bulldogs back in early May ... The bottom four spots in Nevada's lineup went a combined 2-16, a far cry from the 7-for-18 on Monday and the 3-for-10 and seven-RBI performance on Friday ... Fresno State's Ozzie Lewis extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a homer off Travis Sutton in the fifth ... Walsh and Scobee extended their hit streaks to eight apiece, and Bowman has now hit in seven straight... Fresno State has put in a bid to host a regional tournament.

•Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1281