Pitching continued to dominate the series yesterday, except for one inning.

Hawai'i overcame a grand slam in the top of the fifth with 10 runs in the bottom of the frame to rally past No. 26 Mississippi State, 10-5, and take a 2-1 edge in the four-game series.

A crowd of 1,172 at Les Murakami Stadium saw the Rainbows (5-6), who entered the game batting .214, march 15 batters to the plate and get nine of their 14 hits against the Bulldogs (8-3) in the fifth. The 10-run inning was two shy of the school record set in 1985 against Murray State.

"It was an impressive inning, to say the least," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "Not just the fact we broke out offensively and put a lot of hits together and put up a 10 spot, but more impressive was the timing of it."

Hawai'i right-hander Jared Alexander, making his second start of the season on a 60-pitch limit as he is coming off a tender elbow that kept him out of action late last season, threw four shutout innings on two hits with five strikeouts.

"He's getting close," Trapasso said. "He threw very good again."

However, Harrison Kuroda had an uncharacteristic outing. He started the fifth by hitting Scott DeLoach with his first pitch. After Ryan Powers' sacrifice, Kuroda walked Ryan Collins on four pitches. Following a visit by Trapasso, Kuroda hit Grant Hogue to load the bases. Luke Adkins followed with a home run to right-center to make it 4-0.

The Rainbows then binged on MSU starter Forrest Moore and reliever Justin Bussey. Back-to-back singles by Greg Garcia and Kolten Wong set up Vinnie Catricala's two-run double to left-center to quickly cut UH's deficit in half.

Moore was pulled for Bussey, who walked Kevin Macdonald on four pitches and hit Shane Hoey to load the bases.

Jeffrey Van Doornum, batting sixth after getting no RBIs through the first 10 games as the cleanup batter, hit a two-run single to tie it 4-4.

"I just tried to let the (pitch) travel a little deeper (toward the plate)," Van Doornum explained about his adjustment at the plate. "Besides that, I just tried to stay with the same approach and tried to hit the ball hard."

The barrage continued with an RBI single by Josh Chevalier, a two-run single by Wong and a three-run double by Macdonald. Van Doornum had an impressive 12-pitch at-bat that ended with a line-out to right to mercifully end the inning.

Kuroda retired the side in order in the sixth, but left with one out in the seventh after giving up successive doubles that made it 10-5.

"It's funny, but as bad as Harry pitched, the biggest inning of the game for us was the sixth, when he put up that zero," Trapasso said. "That really stopped it from being a slugfest."

Hawai'i freshman Connor Little pitched the final 2 2/3 innings without allowing a run or hit, while walking one and hitting another. He had six strikeouts.

Ironically, Kuroda pitched the fewest innings of the three pitchers and gave up all the runs, but was in the right place at the right time to get credit for the win.

"It happens," said Kuroda (2-0) of being the beneficiary of the big inning. "It was a team win. They (the batters) could've easily folded, but everybody pulled together."

"We just had to battle back," Van Doornum said. "They scored four, we had to score more. There was a lot of ballgame left. Once they answered, we had to answer right back."

Even though the Rainbows were struggling at the plate — they had four hits in each of the first two games of the series — no one was panicking after the grand slam.

"They didn't show any discouragement," Trapasso said. "There was nothing but a confident look in the guys' eyes. When Vinnie cut it to two, I think that all lifted us."

It was the first time UH scored in double digits this season and only the second time it had double-digit hits.

For the second game in a row, Garcia batted leadoff with Wong hitting second. They were in opposite spots the first nine games of the season.

"I just need to see the ball better," Wong said of the switch. "Greg's a better first batter than I am. He can run the count better than I can. It's a better mix, I think."

Garcia batted 2 for 5 with two runs, while Wong was 2 for 4 with two runs and two RBIs.

The series concludes at 1:05 p.m. today. Hawai'i will send freshman Matt Sisto (1-1) to the mound. The Bulldogs will counter with either Ricky Bowen (0-0) or Chad Crosswhite (0-0).