HONOLULU -- Clutch hitting by a host of BYU hitters and five innings of two-hit pitching Thursday night led the Cougars to a 7-6 victory over Hawaii.

Rob Itri's two-out home run in the first inning with one runner aboard gave the Cougars the fast start they needed to improve to 4-10 on the season.

Hawaii kept the game close with timely hitting of its own. With one runner on base, Brian Bock tied the game in the second inning after blasting a Jeff Stone pitch out of the park for a home run.

The Cougars got on the board again in the third after Cameron Coughlan's leadoff walk resulted in a run after a single by Itri and a wild pitch by Bryan Lee. Dave Jensen came through with a double down the left-field line scoring Itri, and Jake Stubblefield singled to right bringing Jensen home to make the score 5-2.

The Rainbows responded to BYU's rally scoring four runs of its own in the third inning putting Hawaii up 6-5. But, that was all the Rainbows would score the rest of the game.

Jeff Mousser relieved Stone in the fifth and closed the door on the Rainbows by pitching five innings of shutout baseball giving up only two hits and recording six strike outs.

BYU tied the game in the fourth after Doug Jackson's RBI single scored Ranger Wiens making the score 6-6. Wiens led off the inning with a double to center field.

Itri recorded his third hit of the game in the seventh on a single up the middle. He stole second, and Jensen's opportune single brought Itri home to score the go-ahead run giving the Cougars a 7-6 advantage.

Before 2,329 fans at Les Murakami Stadium, BYU defeated the Rainbows that swept UCLA in Honolulu last week in a three-game series.

The Cougars play the Rainbows 5-6, Friday evening in the second of a three-game series.

Brigham Young at HAWAII
              Feb 21, 2002 at Honolulu, HI (Les Murakami Stadium)
Brigham Young 7 (4-10)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug cf.........  5  0  1  1   0  1  3  0   1
COUGHLAN, Cameron lf.....  4  2  2  0   1  0  0  0   0
CARSON, Matt rf..........  5  0  0  0   0  0  4  0   0
ITRI, Rob 2b/3b..........  5  3  3  1   0  0  1  4   1
OBREY, Kainoa 3b.........  3  0  1  0   1  2  0  1   0
 YI, Han 2b..............  1  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   1
JENSEN, Dave 1b..........  4  1  2  2   0  0 10  1   1
STUBBLEFIELD, Jake dh....  4  0  1  1   0  0  0  0   1
BIRKELAND, Lars c........  4  0  0  0   0  0  7  2   2
WIENS, Ranger ss.........  4  1  3  0   0  0  1  5   0
STONE, Jeff p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 MOUSSER, Jeff p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 39  7 13  5   2  3 27 14   7
HAWAII 6 (5-6)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
Mocny dh.................  3  0  0  0   1  0  0  0   1
 Honma ph................  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   0
Cook 3b..................  3  1  2  0   2  0  0  4   0
Omori 1b.................  4  1  1  0   1  0 12  1   2
Martines lf..............  5  1  1  1   0  1  3  0   1
Wilson ss................  4  1  0  0   1  2  2  0   0
Boudon rf................  3  1  1  1   1  1  3  0   0
Nogawa 2b................  4  0  0  2   0  0  2  6   3
Bock c...................  3  1  2  2   0  0  3  0   1
Guillen cf...............  3  0  0  0   0  1  1  0   0
Lee p....................  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 Quaglieri p.............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 Le Ducq p...............  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
Totals................... 33  6  7  6   6  6 27 12   9
Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
Brigham Young....... 203 100 100 -  7 13  2
HAWAII.............. 024 000 000 -  6  7  0
-------------------------------------------
E - OBREY; YI. DP - UH 1. LOB - BYU 7; UH 9. 2B - JENSEN; WIENS. HR - ITRI;
Bock. HBP - Boudon; Bock. SH - Guillen. SB - COUGHLAN; ITRI; WIENS; Cook 2;
Omori; Boudon. CS - Mocny; Boudon.
Brigham Young          IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
STONE, Jeff.........  4.0  5  6  4  4  0 17 21
MOUSSER, Jeff.......  5.0  2  0  0  2  6 16 21
HAWAII                 IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
Lee.................  3.0  6  5  5  2  2 15 17
Quaglieri...........  5.1  7  2  2  0  1 22 22
Le Ducq.............  0.2  0  0  0  0  0  2  2
Win - MOUSSER (2-1).  Loss - Quaglieri (1-2).  Save - None.
WP - Lee. HB - MOUSSER 2. PB - BIRKELAND.
Umpires - HP: Gary Montalbo  1B: Mike Evans  3B: Jim LeBeau
Start: 6:35   Time: 2:50   Attendance: 2329
Game notes:
Turnstile: 795
STONE faced 1 batter in the 5th.

For several Cougars this week's BYU baseball games at the University of Hawai`i provide a homecoming of sorts.

BYU, 3-10, plays at the University of Hawai`i, 5-5, in a three-game series beginning Thursday evening.

The Cougars are in Hawai`i during the Olympic break from school. It's a homecoming for Kainoa Obrey, Doug Jackson, Assistant Coach David "Boy" Eldredge, and even Ranger Wiens (served a Church mission there last year) returning to the Islands.

Obrey and Jackson are BYU juniors and were teammates at Iolani High School in Hawai`i. Obrey, a pre-season All-American, starts at third base, while Jackson, who was an all-conference pick along with Obrey last season, starts now in center field.

Eldredge is in his fourth year on BYU's coaching staff, having played for the Cougars in the early 1980s out of Hawai`i. Wiens is in his first year as BYU's starting shortstop.

"We've gotten off to a slow start, so it's important we play well in these games to start gaining confidence as we continue to prepare for our conference season," said BYU Coach Vance Law.

Starting on the mound Thursday (9:30 p.m. MST) is Jeff Stone (0-2, 8.57). Ryan Adams (0-2, 5.59) is scheduled to start the same time in Friday evening's game. Scott Koffman (1-2, 6.75) is the probable starter for Saturday's game which is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. MST.

Continuing to lead the Cougars is junior outfielder Matt Carson who was named Mountain West Conference Player of the Week for his performance in the recent trip to California. Carson is now batting .438 and hit homers in the eighth and ninth innings to lead BYU to its third victory of the season last Saturday.

This Friday and Saturday's games between BYU and UH will be broadcast live on http://www.uhathletics.hawaii.edu/ on the Internet, while Thursday's game will have updates throughout the UH basketball game. The Saturday game can be watched live on Internet video through that same site.

Following the three-game series with the Rainbows, BYU then flies to play a three-game series at Hawai`i-Hilo. That series begins on Monday and can also be heard on the Internet at http://vulcans.uhh.hawaii.edu/.

For more information, please download the PDF file in the upper right-hand corner of this page.