The Rainbows (9-7 WAC, 25-15 overall) gained a game on the Wolf Pack (8-8, 23-21), who entered the game tied with UH. Both teams are a distant second to Rice.

The pitchers' duel between UH's Ricky Bauer and Nevada's Travis Sutton happened before 728 at Les Murakami Stadium. Sutton allowed four hits and five walks with six strikeouts in nine innings before giving way to Bryan Johnson (1-2), who started the 10th.

Inouye's RBI preserved a combined four-hitter by Bauer, who pitched three-hit ball with eight strikeouts over nine innings, and Guy McDowell, (2-1) who allowed a lead-off single in the top of the 10th before retiring the next three batters.

"The whole at-bat I was thinking: curveball, curveball, curveball, because I knew he wasn't going to come at me with a fastball (for a strike)," Inouye said. "He threw me a first-pitch fastball and I let it go. I was looking curveball all the way and he threw it to me."

Inouye pulled the 0-1 pitched down the left-field line at about medium depth. The only question was whether the ball would drift foul and that left fielder Chris Gimenez would let it fall for a strike. But he caught it about three feet inside the line, easily allowing Castillo to score.

RICKY BAUER

Brian Finegan was intentionally walked to bring the left-handed hitting Andrew Sansaver to the plate. After taking a strike, Sansaver walked on four pitches to load the bases for Inouye.

"It was a battle," Inouye said of the pitchers' duel. "None of us were hitting. Scoreless the whole game, there was not much you could do but play solid defense."

Johnson had frustrated the Rainbows twice. In the second inning, he gave up a lead-off single to Jaziel Mendoza and walked two after two outs to load the bases, only to strike out Green.

In the sixth with one out, he walked two batters, only to get Mendoza to ground to shortstop Robert Marcial, who got a force at third, and got Rocky Russo to ground out to second to end the threat.

"He was mixing it up," Inouye said. "He had good stuff, but some of it was so slow that a lot of our guys couldn't sit back and wait on it."

Bauer, meanwhile, had allowed only two runners to reach second: a two-out double by Hayes and a lead-off single in the eighth by Derek McNeil followed by a sacrifice.

"I enjoyed it," Bauer said of the duel. "The intensity was up and everybody seemed to be into it. It was fun out there."

As usual, he let his defense take care of business. Despite two errors, he was backed by a solid defense. Second baseman Isaac Omura made a diving stop of a McNeil grounder and, from his knees, threw him out.

"That always helps, to have your defense back you 100 percent," Bauer said. "I relied on them."

The only time a Wolf Pack runner reached third was in the 10th against McDowell. Joe Mercer led off with a single. After McNeil flied out to center, Carlos Madrid hit a grounder at the first base bag that Sansaver fielded and stepped on the bag. But his throw to second hit Mercer and caromed into center field, allowing the runner to get to third. But McDowell got Marcial on a fly out to right.

"What can you say about the job both pitchers did?" UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "It's an incredible college baseball game when you finish nine innings and its zero-zero. But we didn't execute well. We made too many mistakes. But our pitching picked us up."

The series continues at 6:35 tonight. UH's Stephen Bryant (5-3, 2.09) will pitch against Adam Colton (3-0, 5.62).