Landon Hernandez gave batterymate Harrison Kuroda a birthday present in the form of a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to rally Hawai'i past Washington, 3-2, yesterday in the opener of the Dairy Queen Classic in the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

The right-handed Kuroda (1-0), who had shoulder surgery early in his college career, pitched two scoreless innings of relief to notch his first career win for the Rainbows (3-3). He celebrated his 23rd birthday yesterday by allowing a single to the first batter he faced to start the eighth inning before retiring six in a row.

With the game tied at 2, Kevin Macdonald led off the bottom of the ninth with a single off reliever Ben Guidos. Macdonald took second on Christian Johnson's sacrifice. The left-handed Guidos was pulled for the right-handed Aaron West to face the right-handed hitting Hernandez. West's wild pitch on an 0-1 count moved Macdonald to third. Against a drawn in infield and outfield, Hernandez lined single to center on a 1-2 count to score Macdonald with the winning run against the Huskies (2-3).

Hawai'i's third consecutive win was a classic pitchers' duel. Rainbows' starter Nate Klein gave up two runs, six hits and a walk with eight strikeouts in seven innings, but departed with the game tied at 2. But it was a far cry from his UH debut against UC Irvine a week ago, when he gave up five runs in six innings in a 5-4 loss. The right-hander made two mistakes when he fell behind and left two fastballs high in the strike zone, resulting in solo home runs in the first by Pierce Rankin and by David Bentrott in the third.

"Night and day from his last outing," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "Struggled early with fastball command, but the fastball command issues were just to ball it down.

"His breaking stuff, his changeup were very good and his fastball, for the most part, while he struggled it, was down, except for those two home runs."

Meanwhile, UW starter Jorden Merry limited UH to two hits and two walks in five innings. The only run he allowed was unearned because of a first-inning error. Merry's over-the-top delivery is similar to another former Husky pitcher, Tim Lincecum. Trapasso said Merry's fastball was sitting in the 88-91 mph range and that he threw good "12-6 curveball." But mostly, Merry was deceptive.

"We weren't getting good swings off of Merry," Trapasso said. "I think there was some deception in him because of just the way we looked. He made us look bad on some pitches. We had some pretty good hitters not looking so good on some of their swings. That tells you he has some kind of deception on his pitches."

But Kuroda didn't give in the final two innings to stage UH's comeback.

"He had good stuff," Trapasso said of Kuroda.

The Huskies were just two batters into the game when Rankin homered to left to make it 1-0 in the top of the first inning.

But a two-out error allowed UH to tie the game in the bottom of the first. Kolten Wong led off with a single, stole second and took third when Greg Garcia grounded out to first. After Vinnie Catricala popped out to second, Jeffrey Van Doornum reached first on shortstop Bentrott's throwing error that allowed Wong to score the tying run.

Bentrott made up for the miscue when he led off the third with a homer to left.

Merry, who had reached 80 pitches after five innings, was lifted for Guidos to start the sixth. After retiring the first two, Macdonald drilled his first homer of the season, a solo shot to left to tie the game at 2.

Guidos (0-1) gave up two runs and three hits in his 3 1/3 innings of relief. Shane Hoey had a two-out double in the seventh, but Macdonald turned out to be Guidos' tormentor. Besides the homer, Macdonald's lead-off single in the ninth set up Hernandez's game-winning hit.

"I think Kevin's been trying to do a little too much," Trapasso said of Macdonald's early struggles (3 for 16 entering yesterday). "He was able to stay back just enough to serve up the middle. He's been a little bit jumpy, not letting the ball travel, not letting the ball get to him. As we play more games, we'll see his swing come around."

The Rainbows play UC Santa Barbara at 8 a.m., Hawai'i time, today. The Gauchos were picked to finish third, one spot behind UC Irvine. Trapasso said freshman right-hander Matt Sisto (1-0) will start today. He was the fourth starter in last week's four-game series against UCI, but was bumped up after picking up the team's first win last Sunday with seven strong innings in a 7-4 victory.

Tomorrow's starter has yet to be determined. If it isn't Alex Capaul, the third starter last weekend against UCI, Jared Alexander might be a consideration for "a couple of innings," Trapasso said. Alexander has been tending to a tender elbow since the end of last season.

Notes: Washington beat Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater, 16-2, in a game that finished about 1:30 a.m. CST yesterday before playing UH at 12:15 p.m. CST. The Huskies could play the game because they only had 55 games on their schedule, one shy of the NCAA limit. Wisconsin's scheduled opponent, St. Mary's (Minnesota), canceled when it was unable to get to the Metrodome because of a snowstorm in the area.