After battling for two victories to take the series, Hawai'i seemed to have lost its fight as Sacramento State pulled out an 8-5 win yesterday to avoid getting swept in the Western Athletic Conference baseball series at Hornet Field in Sacramento, Calif.

"I blame myself because I guess I didn't have our guys understanding that after how Thursday and Friday went, there's no reason to expect anything less than a dog fight today," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "They just walked through it and lost to a team we shouldn't lose to."

Hawai'i won Thursday, 9-6, after taking a 6-0 lead after two innings, and went 10 innings in a 12-9 win on Friday.

The Rainbows (24-12 overall, 5-4 WAC) dropped to second place, a game behind first-place Fresno State (6-3) and Louisiana Tech (6-3). Fresno State beat Nevada, 10-4, to sweep that series, and Louisiana Tech pounded New Mexico State, 12-5, to take 2 of 3 in that series.

Hawai'i moves on to a non-conference game at Pacific on Tuesday. Although the Rainbows, 17-6 in the WAC a season ago, are ahead of last year's conference pace when they were 3-5 (one game had been postponed until later), they need to be better in all aspects of the game soon.

"It's a game where we'd like to try to play hard and show some toughness and win," Trapasso said of the Pacific game. "But that game today is going to be one to haunt us, I guarantee you that."

Fresno State swept the Hornets last weekend. That one-game difference is already reflecting in the standings and might be costly down the road.

The Rainbows had the bases loaded with one out in the first against Sacramento State starter Mick Joyce, but Kris Sanchez grounded into a double play. After that, Joyce retired 12 of the next 13 batters before giving up a run in the sixth. Joyce (2-3) went seven-plus innings, allowing three runs, six hits and three walks with one strikeout. Cyrus Sarraf gave up two runs in the last two innings.

The Hornets, who combined for 25 hits in the first two games, continued their onslaught of UH pitching with 14 yesterday. No. 9 hitter Tim Wheeler batted 3 for 4 with two doubles and four RBIs and No. 7 hitter David Flores was 3 for 4 with three RBIs. Montana Dye, who had two doubles, had the other RBI.

Joshua Schneider, coming off a 6-0 victory against San Jose State a week ago, lasted only four innings, allowing four runs, seven hits and a walk in his quickest exit of the season. Relievers Jayson Kramer (two runs in 1 1/3 innings) and Nick Rhodes (two runs in one inning) didn't help matters either, and there wasn't much help behind them. Tyler Davis was unavailable after pitching four innings on Friday, and Matt Daly was only available for up to three batters because he used 48 pitches on Thursday. Cameron Wheeler, though, was perfect in 1 2/3 innings.

Tim Wheeler's two-out, RBI double staked the Hornets to a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Flores' RBI single in the fourth was later followed by Wheeler's two-run double that made it 4-0.

The Rainbows finally scored in the sixth. Jon Hee led off with a double, took third on Jorge Franco's sacrifice and scored on Justin Frash's sacrifice fly to left to make it 4-1. But the Hornets got two back in the bottom of the sixth on Flores' second run-scoring single and Wheeler's RBI single.

Hawai'i got the first two runners aboard to start the seventh and continued its small-ball tactics by moving the runners with a sacrifice by Vinnie Catricala. It again got only one run on Eli Christensen's RBI single. Trapasso said the bunts had dual purposes of either the batter trying to work his way on or advance the runners.

But the Hornets again responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame on Dye's RBI double and Flores' third RBI single to make it 8-2.

The Rainbows managed their best inning of the game with a three-run eighth, highlighted by a two-run home run by Sanchez off Sarrraf. It was Sanchez's team-leading seventh homer and second in as many days.

Hawai'i's game at Pacific is set for 11 a.m., HST, Tuesday. It will be aired on 1420 AM.