Hawaii’s Karl Haunts Aztecs with Six-Hitter

San Diego State Coach Jim Dietz wasn’t interested in Scott Karl when he came out of Carlsbad High three years ago.

On Saturday night, Dietz must have been wondering what he was thinking about then. Karl, a left-hander, came back to haunt Dietz, throwing a six-hitter in Hawaii’s 11-2 opening-game victory in front of 828 at San Diego State’s Smith Field.

But some of the sting was taken away when Rick Navarro (9-0) and Benji Grigsby combined on a five-hitter as SDSU won the second game, 2-1.

The split left SDSU (35-12, 17-4) 2 1/2 games ahead of Hawaii (36-11, 14-6) in the Western Athletic Conference race. The Aztecs and Rainbows have six WAC games remaining, including a doubleheader at 5 today.

“I thought I’d at least get a little response from them being a local kid,” Karl said. ‘Oh well, it’s his loss.’ ”

But Dietz is not the only college coach feeling the loss of Karl, the 1988 Avocado League player of the year.

No one else wanted Karl after his broke his ankle playing soccer during his senior year. No one, except Hawaii Coach Les Murakami.

“There were a lot of people interested in him after his junior year, but then everybody dropped off, Murakami said. “We decided to take a chance on him.”

Karl has been thanking Murakami ever since. In three years at Hawaii, he is 24-12, including a 10-4 record last season and a 11-2 mark this year.

In 95 innings this season, Karl has struck out 105 and walked 38 hitters. That didn’t hold up Saturday as Karl walked a season-high five batters and struck out only four.

“It wasn’t one of his better games,” Murakami said. “Usually he has better control.”

Said Karl, who had a 2.27 ERA entering the game: “I had some mental lapses and that cost me some walks.”

But Karl’s glove helped him out.

He walked two batters in the second, but he started a double play by stabbing Tony Enomoto’s shot and throwing to shortstop Randy Vollmer, who threw on to first.

With two on and no outs in the fourth, Karl turned double play on another hard ground ball from Enomoto.

“The first one was just a reaction play,” Karl said. “I just stuck my glove up to protect myself. I actually saw the ball on the second one.”

Hawaii’s batters were seeing the ball pretty well too--banging out 17 hits against five SDSU pitchers. Aztec starter Scott Hofstede (5-2) lasted just 2 2/3 innings, allowing six hits and five runs, including a three-run homer by Hawaii’s Harold Cabbab. Hofstede was relieved by Jim Rushford, who didn’t fare any better. Rushford gave up five hits and three runs in 2 1/3 innings.

Steve Dietz had two of the six hits against Karl. He also scored a run and knocked one in.

In the second game, the Rainbows scored a run in the first on a Erik Evans double and Dwayne Daughtry single. But they were shut out the rest of the way.

SDSU came back with a run in the first on a Brent Ferguson double, a passed ball and a Enomoto ground out. It scored the tie-breaking run in the third on singles by Dietz, Ferguson and a double by Greg Quam.

Navarro threw five innings, striking out six and allowing all five Hawaii hits. Grigsby came on and retired six of seven batters, two on strikeouts, to pick up his seventh save.

“When I’m on in relief, I go all out,” Grigsby said. “It’s do or die. Everything was going their way in the first game. Now the momentum shifts. I think they thought they had (the doubleheader) won after the first game.”