It was a little painful to take, but Hawai'i recognizes a good effort when it sees one.

Santa Clara avoided a sweep with a 3-2 win Sunday against the Rainbows (2-1).

"When you win the first two games and win the series, it's a good feeling," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "But we'll come away with a bittersweet feeling because that's one we'll feel like we could've had. We'll tip our hat to Santa Clara. They're a good club. When you give up three runs on a Sunday, you hope to win. But they did a nice job, made the big pitches when they had to, and that's a mark of a good club."

Junior right-hander Jeff Lombard (1-0) tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing a hit and two walks, but striking out six of the 10 batters he faced in relief for the Broncos (1-2).

Carl Bacon batted 3 for 4, including RBI singles to tie the game at 2 in the sixth and for the go-ahead run in the eighth, both against UH left-hander Nicholas Rhodes (0-1), who went 2 1/3 innings of relief.

"We talked to our team about finishing off, if you win the first two," Santa Clara coach Mark O'Brien said. "But if you lose the first two, it's huge not to get swept. The big thing for us is we walk out of here with a good feeling, but (UH is) a good team. We're not going to get this experience anywhere else. That's a heck of a job by our young guys."

It was an entertaining game for the crowd of 1,168 at Les Murakami Stadium. They saw the Broncos take a lead early for the third time in the series, the first of three lead changes in the game. For a low-scoring game, it lasted three hours, 50 minutes. The teams combined for 21 hits and nine walks, but the pitchers battled out of jams to keep the game close.

Neither starter — UH's Matt Daly and SC's Justin Kuehn — figured in the decision, although Daly departed after five innings with a 2-1 lead.

Kuehn gave up two runs (one unearned), seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts in six innings. Daly went five, giving up a run, six hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

"Matt was just OK," Trapasso said. "He stuck with one pitch today, got a couple sliders over, a couple changes over, but for the most part, he wasn't throwing them for strikes. That just ran up his pitch count."

Santa Clara cashed in one of the walks to take a 1-0 lead in the second on a double by Ryan Conan. But Daly minimized the damage by stranding runners at second and third with one out with a strikeout and flyout.

Daly also faced first and third with one out in the third, but got cleanup hitter Nathan Faulkner to foul out to catcher Landon Hernandez. Although Evan LeBlanc walked to load the bases, Daly got Bacon to ground out to escape further damage.

Hawai'i tied the game in the bottom of the third with two outs. Brandon Haislet doubled and took third when Kris Sanchez reached first safely on a grounder when first baseman Conan dropped second baseman Kevin Drever's throw. Eli Christensen followed with an RBI single.

The Rainbows took the lead in the fifth. Again with two outs, Haislet reached on a bunt single to third, stole second despite a pitchout and scored on Sanchez's double off the left-center field wall.

The Broncos tied it at 2 in the sixth against Rhodes. With one out, LeBlanc reached on a single up the middle, beating out second baseman Nathan Young's throw. LeBlanc took second on a balk. Bacon then grounded a single up the middle that Young stopped with a dive, only to have the ball trickle out of his glove, allowing LeBlanc to score.

Santa Clara regained the lead in the eighth with one out. Faulkner doubled to left, took third on LeBlanc's single to left and scored on Bacon's line single to center.

Rhodes was pulled for right-hander Josh Schneider, who got the next two outs on two pitches. Right fielder Matt Roquemore robbed Conan of a possible extra-base hit with an over-the-shoulder catch of a deep drive for the second out of the inning.

Lombard extinguished a UH threat in the seventh. With two outs, Haislet walked against Daniel DeMarco, who was then lifted for left-hander Sean O'Neill to face the left-handed hitting Sanchez, who singled to right to put runners at first and third. Lombard came in and struck out Christensen to end the threat.

Hawai'i threatened in the ninth when Justin Frash walked with one out. But Lombard struck out Haislet.

"I just didn't realize the speed of it," Haislet said. "It's deceptive. From the dugout, it doesn't look like too much, but when you get up there it has a late break to it."

Sanchez singled to right to put runners at the corners. After a visit by O'Brien, Lombard struck out Christensen to end the game.

"We needed to get a win today, so I had to get it done," Lombard said.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.