The last-place Bulldogs fell to 17-38 and 9-19.

Wright (5-3) allowed two hits and had four strikeouts in relief of senior starter Stephen Bryant, who was charged with four runs on seven hits and a walk with four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.

Wright came in with one out in the bottom of the seventh after Bryant gave up a solo home run to Brandon Haygood that put Tech up, 4-3. But the Rainbows scored twice in the top of the eighth to take the lead.

Pinch hitter Robbie Wilder led off with a single against Mitch Tucker and took second on Schafer Magana's sacrifice. Esteban Lopez's double to right scored Wilder to tie the game at 4. Lopez advanced to third when Greg Kish grounded out to shortstop and scored on Roberts' second RBI single of the game to make it 5-4.

"He (Roberts) had a huge day," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "He had three hits and probably the hardest ball he hit was the line drive out to left-center."

Wright snuffed a Bulldogs' comeback in the bottom of the ninth. Mims Boyce led off with a double, but Wright did not allow the runner to advance as he struck out the next two batters before getting Haygood on a fly to deep center to end the game.

"That was big," Trapasso said. "They let the (the batter after Boyce, Albie Goulder) swing once and tried to bunt, but took a strike. Stephen came up big for us."

Meanwhile, right fielder Matt Inouye was hurt in the bottom of the fifth inning. Shortstop Gary Holik inadvertently landed on Inouye after snagging a line drive in UH's two-run fourth inning. Trapasso said Inouye felt a little "woozy" after the play, but said he should be available for today's game.

Also, the right-handed Bryant had trouble with a cut middle finger on his throwing hand. Before giving up the home run to Haygood, Trapasso said Bryant had signaled that he could not throw his curveball.

"We see him do that, then all of a sudden, 'boom,' there's a home run," Trapasso said. "So I go out for an injury timeout and he had reopened that cut on his middle finger that's been bothering him most of the year. The finger was bleeding all over the place and he said he couldn't throw his curveball."

Hawai'i took a 2-0 lead in the fourth, getting the first run with one out on four consecutive walks, the last by Inouye to drive in the run. Roberts followed with an RBI single against Tech starter Ryan Rupert.

The Bulldogs took the lead in the fifth on four successive hits. A run-scoring single by Haygood pulled Tech to 2-1 before Brandon Hudson's two-run double made it 3-2.

Hawai'i tied the game in the seventh. With one out, Derek DuPree tripled to right and scored on Joe Spiers' sacrifice fly to right.

After Haygood's homer snapped the tie, the Rainbows got the two runs in the top of the eighth against Tucker (2-5), who allowed three runs in 3· innings of relief.

Rice clinches

Rice clinched the WAC title with a 5-3 win against San Jose State and Nevada's 6-5 win against Fresno State last night.