Alex Capaul pitched six solid innings and Kevin Macdonald continued his mastery of hitting with runners on base as No. 23 Hawai'i beat slumping Santa Clara, 8-4, last night at Stephen Schott Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

Capaul (1-1), a sophomore making just his second start since a four-inning stint against UC Irvine Feb. 21, gave up three runs, seven hits and a walk with five strikeouts as the Rainbows improved to 20-10. Josh Slaats, who didn't pitch in last weekend's San Jose State series, added two scoreless innings and Lenny Linsky allowed an unearned run in the ninth to finish off the Broncos (10-17), who lost their 10th in a row.

"He was solid," UH coach Mike Trapasso said of Capaul. "He struggled with first-pitch strikes all night long, but only one walk. That walk came around to score as they always seem to. He battled his way and made pitches when he had to. He gave us exactly what we needed to have, which was a couple times through the lineup, actually almost three times through. His last inning was probably his best inning."

Macdonald batted 2 for 5 with a two-run double to ignite a four-run first against Broncos starter Cory Hall (0-4), who lasted just seven batters, striking out two of them. Macdonald also had an RBI single in a three-run seventh that was capped by a two-run home run by Landon Hernandez, who tied Kolten Wong for the team lead with five homers.

"Scoring four in the first was big," Trapasso said. "It helped (Capaul relax). With a big four-run lead, we didn't try to do anything fancy and over-pitch. We just tried to throw a lot of fastballs and force contact."

The Rainbows stole six bases. Wong and Greg Garcia each had two steals, with Ryan Morford and Jeffrey Van Doornum swiping one apiece. The Broncos were without their best player, catcher Tommy Medica, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.

"It wasn't really running on their catcher (Geoff Klein) as much as their pitchers were slow to the plate and allowed us to get a lot of guys in scoring position," Trapasso said. "We were out-hit (8-7), but our hits seem to come with runners in scoring position."

Garcia led off the game with a single and stole second. Morford walked and the Rainbows executed a double steal that put runners in scoring position to set up Macdonald's two-run double. Wong singled and stole second before scoring on Van Doornum's single.

In the seventh, Morford led off with a walk, stole second and eventually scored on a single by Macdonald. But the big blow was Hernandez's two-run home run. The Broncos had closed to 5-3 entering the seventh.