Devon Dageford did nearly as much damage by himself as Hawai'i did as a team.

Louisiana Tech's right fielder drove in three runs and was a single shy of hitting for the cycle to carry the hot Bulldogs over snake-bit Hawai'i, 8-4, last night to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Athletic Conference series.

The Bulldogs (25-18 overall, 10-9 WAC) moved past the fifth-place Rainbows (26-19, 9-9) by a half-game in the conference standings before a disappointed crowd of 3,459, the largest of the season at Les Murakami Stadium.

Hawai'i's four-game losing streak is its longest skid of the season.

Freshman Jesse Moore pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings of relief, the best outing of any UH pitcher in the series thus far. The Rainbows — even with a modified lineup with hot-hitting Ryan Morford (7 for 13 in the series) moving to the lead-off spot and freshman Easton Torigoe starting at designated hitter — couldn't sustain any consistent offense, leaving 11 runners on base, five in scoring position.

"We weren't able to get the big hit," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We hit some balls hard, but for us, it starts with the guys on the mound. That's my area. I've done a pretty (bad) job of coaching our pitchers up the last couple weeks because we're not pitching. We're throwing."

Tech starter John Anderson and UH starter Nate Klein were even at 3 after four innings. But the Bulldogs blew the game open by sending nine batters to the plate in a five-run fifth that was highlighted by Dageford's two-run triple, the fourth consecutive hit off Klein in the inning and the one that ended his night after 4 1/3 innings (eight runs, 10 hits, four strikeouts). Moore came in and his first pitch was drilled by Chris Kersten for an RBI double.

"Jesse, for the first time in two weeks, showed our pitchers what it was we've been doing for 10 weeks previous or whatever it is," Trapasso said. "He just stayed within himself. He didn't overthrow. He kept the ball down, he located (his pitches) and threw his breaking ball for strikes. That's what we've gotten away from the past couple weeks."

Meanwhile, Anderson (6-2) went 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned), seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts. He got help from Mike Jefferson and Graham Meyers, who each went two-thirds of an inning. Kyle Roliard, the designated hitter, finished the game with two scoreless innings for his first save.

The Bulldogs have been sizzling since they were swept in a four-game series at San Jose State. They have won 12 of their last 14 in trying to avoid last year's debacle of not qualifying for the WAC tournament, which it happened to host last year. Hawai'i is hosting this year's tournament.

Morford batted leadoff for UH last night, going 2 for 5 with a double, but Torigoe went 0 for 4, including striking out twice with a runner on third.

The Rainbows will try to avoid the sweep in the series finale at 1:05 p.m. today. This is the first series they have lost since the season-opening series against UC Irvine.

"We're trying what we can to get things going," Trapasso said. "As good as we're playing is as bad as we're playing. We just have to get back to the basics of what we do well, which starts on the mound, throwing the ball down in the zone."