Hawai'i was supposed to staff last night's 3-1 win against Alabama-Birmingham at Les Murakami Stadium. But Josh Schneider and Mitch Kloskowski gave the Rainbows reasons to play it out as a normal game.

Schneider (2-0) pitched six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and three walks with five strikeouts to help the Rainbows (7-9) complete the two-game non-conference series sweep before a crowd of 768. Schneider had to be at his best because UAB starter Kloskowski (2-1) was on his game, too, allowing three runs, five hits and two walks with five strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.

"I couldn't be happier with our effort overall because I really felt their guy was pretty good," UH coach Mike Trapasso said of Kloskowski. "He has great deception. He had some at-bats where he was just blowing us up. That's a credit to him because we battled. I liked our approach, but it started on the mound with Schneider. He was really creating some tempo and being relaxed. It's the first time we've seen him relaxed out there on the mound."

Cory Kahn followed Schneider, allowing a run on two hits in two innings. Cameron Wheeler gave up a single and walk with two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth for his first save.

Trapasso had planned to staff last night's game or let more pitchers get into the game to get them work. But Kloskowski had handcuffed the Rainbows the first four innings, not allowing a batted ball out of the infield. But Schneider was on a roll, too.

"My desire was to get some other guys in there," Trapasso said. "I wanted (freshman) Sean Soto to get in tonight for the first time. I wanted to get (freshman Alex) Capaul an inning. But we get to a point where their guy's out there shutting us out and Schneider was really throwing well, so we decided let's just go ahead, see how this thing plays out and we'll just shut him down at 90 (pitches) because that had been the limit he's been up to before we started the season."

Schneider, a senior right-hander, threw 88 pitches and got eight grounders, one for a double play.

"I just wanted to go out there and iron out some of those little kinks," Schneider said. "It was fun starting a game and I just want to go out there and make the defense work.

"Fastball command was working really well. I was able to throw my changeup to keep the batters off-balance. We had a great defense, so I was really confident up there."

Meanwhile, Kloskowski had the Rainbows pounding the Domo turf with grounders. Twelve of the 19 outs he recorded were on grounders. Before UH's three-run fifth, its only hit was an infield single in the first by Vinnie Catricala.

"Mitch is a command guys, he doesn't beat himself," UAB coach Brian Shoop said. "He always keeps us in the game. He did again tonight."

The Rainbows broke the scoreless deadlock with a three-run fifth. Kevin Fujii led off with a ground single to left just inside the third-base line; it was UH's first batted ball that reached the outfield. Jon Hee followed with a line single to right that sent Fujii to second.

After a passed ball advanced the runners a base, Sean Montplaisir singled off the second baseman's glove to score Fujii and move Hee to third. Montplaisir then stole second before Brandon Haislet struck out. With Catricala at the plate, Kloskowski's first pitch sailed over the catcher for a wild pitch that scored Hee and moved Montplaisir to third. Catricala's single to left scored Montplaisir to make it 3-0 before Alex Myers was called out on strikes to end the inning.

The Blazers scored in the eighth against Kahn. With two outs, Phil Bell singled to center, took second on a balk, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Ryan Keedy's double to left-center.

The Rainbows have little time to rest. They depart for California at 7:15 this morning to play a three-game series at UC Irvine (11-1), which is ranked No. 13 by Baseball America and No. 8 by Collegiate Baseball.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.