Hawai'i's ninth-inning heroics fell short as Nevada squeaked out a 5-4 win last night to even the Western Athletic Conference series at 1.

The Rainbows (20-9 overall, 1-1 WAC) scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, but failed to match their come-from-behind win Friday. They left the tying run on third base when Mario Rivera retired Derek DuPree on a grounder to short to end the game.

Freshman first baseman Shaun Kort's bases-loaded double off UH's ace reliever Tyler Davis highlighted a four-run top of the seventh to lift the Wolf Pack (15-13, 1-1) before 2,327 at Les Murakami Stadium, the second-largest crowd of the season.

Hawai'i starter Mark Rodrigues left the game after six innings with a 2-1 lead. He had allowed a run, eight hits and his first walk in 41 innings, since his start against Georgia Southern on Feb. 2. To start the seventh, UH coach Mike Trapasso used Craig Johnson, who retired the first two batters on foul pop ups. But Jason Rodriguez and pinch hitter Jacob Kaup hit back-to-back singles to put runners at first and second.

The right-handed Davis was then brought in to face Daniel Eastham, a right-handed hitter. Nevada coach Gary Powers countered by bringing in the left-handed hitting Mike Hale, whose pinch-hit single to left tied the game at 2 and moved Kaup to second. Davis then hit Matt Suleski to load the bases and set up Kort's bases-clearing double to give the Wolf Pack a 5-2 lead before Konrad Schmidt struck out.

Trapasso felt he should have brought in Davis from the start of the inning.

"I tried to milk one inning out of Johnson so we wouldn't have to overuse Tyler," Trapasso said. "It was a bad decision on my part, so I'm going to take the blame for this."

It was an uncharacteristic outing for the bullpen, which has usually been reliable. The four runs allowed by the pen — two by Johnson (0-1) in two-thirds of an inning and the two by Davis in one-third — were the most runs UH has given up since a 5-4 loss to Wichita State 14 games ago. The Rainbows' staff had not allowed more than three runs during that span.

"I credit those guys; they got the hits with two outs," Trapasso said.

Where UH's bullpen failed, Nevada's succeeded in the sixth, when UH went ahead, 2-1. Following Brandon Haislet's RBI double in the sixth, Nevada starter Rod Scurry walked the next two batters to load the bases with one out. Powers brought in the left-handed Jared Mitchell to face the left-handed hitting Zimny, who struck out. After a 1-0 count on the right-handed hitting Landon Hernandez, Powers pulled Mitchell for the right-handed Matt Renfree. Hernandez popped up to short to leave the bases loaded.

"Those two kids did a great job in that situation," Powers said. "Mitchell getting Zimny was huge and Renfree coming in and backing it up. We don't win the game if we don't do that. You never know when it's important, but that was the defining moment of this game."

Renfree (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing one hit. Rivera pitched the final two innings, giving up two runs in the ninth, for his second save.

The Rainbows mounted a threat in the ninth. Pinch hitter Ryan Asato led off with a walk and was lifted for pinch runner Nate Young. Zimny flied out to left before Hernandez singled to right to put runners at first and second. Both scored on Vinnie Catricala's double to the left-center alley to pull UH to 5-4. He was lifted for pinch runner Matt Roquemore, but after a ground out, Roquemore was stranded at third when DuPree grounded out to short to end the game.

"We can't wait till the ninth inning to start showing some toughness at the plate," Trapasso said. "While I take the blame for this, our pitching has still been pretty reliable and you can't expect to win college baseball games 2 to 1. That's disappointing."

The Rainbows scored in the first on Haislet's RBI single and again in the sixth on his RBI double.

"For 16 of 18 innings, we've just kind of gone through the motions and haven't shown the toughness we have in the ninth innings of both games," Trapasso said. "That's what's disappointing."

They didn't help their cause either by losing three runners on pickoffs or trying to advance on pitches in the dirt, but within range of the catcher.

"We gotta be better than that," Trapasso said. "When we're working on dirt-ball reads, we can't get stuck, especially when you're down three runs. I think that's five (lost runners) in two games. That's my fault for not getting that across to our guys well enough. When we're not doing the same thing and making the adjustment, that's my fault."

The series resumes at 1:05 p.m. today. Joshua Schneider (2-1, 2.28) will start for UH against Kyle How (1-2, 4.07) in a battle of right-handers.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.