It was no surprise that Hawai'i's Matt Daly was named Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week yesterday.

He was an obvious choice after pitching 7 2/3 scoreless innings against one of the league's better hitting teams in Nevada in the Rainbows' 4-0 win that gave them the series, 3 to 1. He allowed just two hits, the first coming on a flare in the seventh, though the second was a liner in the eighth. He walked five, which is two fewer than his season average per nine innings, but mainly pitched within himself by not trying to over-powering every batter.

Daly also threw a scoreless inning of relief Friday in which he walked three. He said he made an adjustment and worked on it Saturday. Apparently, it worked.

Daly's performance was the culmination of a weekend of fine pitching by the UH staff. While the Wolf Pack have struggled on the road this season (2-10 after the UH series), they still have a good-hitting club. They entered the series with a .321 batting average. But UH's pitchers held their hitters to .207 and 11 runs. Nevada went from leading the WAC in hitting to second at .311.

"As a staff this weekend, we definitely competed," Daly said. "Lot of guys stepped up, myself included, finally."

Freshman left-hander Sam Spangler (one-third of an inning) and Jayson Kramer (one scoreless) preserved the combined shutout.

Jared Alexander has been setting the tone all season. Alexander gave up four runs in the first three innings before settling down in a 10-4 win Friday. He went seven innings, allowing nine hits and a walk, while striking out five. Daly and Cameron Wheeler added scoreless innings.

Nick Rhodes, with the help of the UH batters, pitched a complete game, albeit seven innings because of the 10-run differential mercy rule in a 13-3 win Saturday. Rhodes gave up three runs, five hits and four walks with two strikeouts.

Even in the 5-4 loss Saturday, the Rainbows pitched well behind Alex Bates, who went four innings, giving up two runs; Cory Kahn, who went 3 1/3 innings, allowing two runs; Kramer went 1 1/3 scoreless and Spangler got one out in a situational lefty-lefty matchup.

Daly has toyed with no-hitters in the past. He had a no-hitter with one out in the ninth at UH-Hilo last season and settled for a one-hitter. He threw a no-hitter last summer in the Cape Cod League while pitching for the Hyannis Mets.

Daly did not know he was going to start until the start of batting practice. UH coach Mike Trapasso said he will continue to use Daly out of the bullpen and determine if he will start as the series goes along.

The Rainbows also played great defense in Daly's game. Third baseman Vinnie Catricala went to the edge of Nevada's dugout to make a catch of a foul pop by Matt Bowman; left fielder Sean Montplaisir hauled in a deep drive by Jason Sadoian; and first baseman Kevin Macdonald started and completed a game-ending double play. Macdonald also started a nice double play in Saturday's doubleheader opener, when he snagged a liner by Shaun Kort and fired off-balanced to second to double-off a runner.

The WAC's four-game series can be taxing on the players since they include doubleheaders. But the Rainbows came out energized on Sunday after Saturday's split.

"You have to tip your hat to our kids from the way they came out in the start of BP (batting practice) on a hot Sunday after being at the yard forever on Saturday," Trapasso said. "These doubleheaders take so much out of you. Sunday is when you feel it most of the time. They came out with tremendous energy. I'm really proud of them because of what they're doing."

The Rainbows leave tonight for Louisiana Tech. They open a four-game series starting Friday.