The Rainbows (3-0 in the tournament, 12-7 overall) plays Chicago State (0-3, 0-6) in a semifinal at 6:35 tonight. The Bulldogs (2-1, 4-5) will face Oregon State (1-2, 9-3) in the other semifinal at 2 p.m.

Freshman Steven Wright will start for UH tonight.

The winners will advance to tomorrow's championship. The losers play for third.

In yesterday's first game, Oregon State beat Chicago State, 15-3, in a game called after the top of the seventh because of the tournament's 10-run differential rule.

A crowd of 805 watched the two games at Les Murakami Stadium.

Ricky Bauer (5-1) threw seven strong innings before faltering in the eighth, when he allowed a lead-off walk and single and throwing ball one to the next batter before being pulled for Darrell Fisherbaugh, who struck out five in the final two innings to record his first save.

But it wasn't that easy. After Fisherbaugh inherited the 1-0 count, he struck out the next two batters before walking Jon Aughey to load the bases for Josh Stackley's three-run triple to right-center to pull the Bulldogs to 4-3. But Fisherbaugh struck out Chip Cannon to strand the tying run at third. The Rainbows cushioned their margin with two runs in the bottom of the eighth.

"It was, by far, our best game of the year, as far as the way we executed," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We had some adversity there in the eighth, but we were able to overcome and answer and get the momentum back on our side."

It was the kind of win the Rainbows needed to show their fans what they are capable of, catcher Matt Inouye said.

"It just shows how good this team actually is," Inouye said. "We struggled at the beginning of the season, but we're trying to show everyone that we're the real deal."

Bauer, who retired the first 13 batters before giving up a fifth-inning single to Chris Altman with one out, allowed two runs on four hits with seven strikeouts.

The eighth-inning runs were the first he allowed in 16 consecutive innings in winning his fifth consecutive decision. He was pulled after 91 pitches. He threw a complete-game shutout against San Francisco on Saturday and was pitching on four days' rest, instead of the usual one-week break between series.

"He was gassed," Trapasso said. "I wanted to try to keep him out there, but he was coming back on short rest from what he's used to. When Ricky loses it, he sometimes loses it in a hurry."

"I felt good in the beginning, but then I just lost it," Bauer said.

He said his change-up and fastball were effective, but "my slider didn't show up today."

But Fisherbaugh, a freshman, shook off nervousness to minimize damage by the Bulldogs. He was charged with a run and a hit in his first save situation.

"I had too much intensity out there," Fisherbaugh said. "I just had to calm down and try to throw strikes. Too much enthusiasm."

The UH hitters did their share. They gave Bauer a 4-0 lead on three RBI hits with two out.

In the first, Robbie Wilder beat out a chopper to second for an infield single, ending an 0-17 drought. After taking second on Brian Finegan's sacrifice, he moved to third when Matt Inouye flied out to right. Starting left fielder Jaziel Mendoza, who had not started since Feb. 8 (but has pinch-hit and been used in late-inning defense), tripled to center to give UH a 1-0 lead.

In the third, Isaac Omura led off with a single to center and took second on Wilder's sacrifice. After Finegan flied out to right for the second out, Omura scored on Inouye's double to left.

The Rainbows got their third two-out RBI hit in the sixth. With one out, Mendoza singled and took third on Russo's hit-and-run single to center. After Sansaver grounded out to the pitcher that froze Mendoza at third, but moved Russo to second, Nate Thurber walked to load the bases. Greg Kish followed with a two-run single to left, chasing Bulldogs' starter Griff Beckham (0-1). Evan Burgess struck out Omura to end the inning.

After the Bulldogs pulled to 4-3 in the top of the eighth, the Rainbows got two in the bottom half on back-to-back doubles by Russo and Sansaver and a two-out throwing error by second baseman Aughey after fielding Omura's grounder.