It certainly wasn't the way Hawai'i wanted to play entering this week's Western Athletic Conference tournament.

For the second game in a row, the Rainbows were listless on the mound and in the batter's box in a 10-2 loss to Utah Valley yesterday on Senior Day at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Rainbows celebrated the end of eligibility for their five seniors: pitchers Jayson Kramer and Jared Alexander, catcher Landon Hernandez and infielders Shane Hoey and Ryan Morford. But their party was spoiled by Chris Benson and Kyle Beecher.

Benson, who hit for the cycle in Saturday's 12-1 win by the Wolverines (18-35), drove in four runs to back the strong pitching of Beecher, who entered the game with an 11.97 earned run average. Benson had a pair of RBI singles and a two-run double. Beecher (3-3) gave up two runs, while limiting the Rainbows (31-24) to two hits and four walks in six-plus innings. In all, UH had just three hits.

Six UH pitchers were tagged for a combined 18 hits and eight walks. Starter Alexander (3-2) lasted just 2 2/3 innings, allowing four runs, eight hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

The only thing that went UH's way was when coach Mike Trapasso successfully argued for a foul on a fly that Cole Anderson hit that was originally ruled a three-run home run down the left-field line in the seventh inning. That came after Trapasso lost a dispute on a Kolten Wong drive down the right-field line that was ruled foul in the fourth, drawing a chorus of boos from the crowd of 1,538.

What the Rainbows need to do now is obvious.

"We have to play better," Trapasso said. "We have to pitch better. We're not going to win with the pitching and hitting we had the last two days."

While it would have been nice to carry momentum into the tournament — fifth-seeded Hawai'i opens Thursday against second-seeded Louisiana Tech, which swept a four-game series here just a little over two weeks ago — the Rainbows have shown resilience all season. Three times they have rebounded from double-digit losses with wins.

"We just turn the page," said Alexander.

It's the way the Rainbows play: Roll with the punches, go with the flow.

Hawai'i is hopeful for the return of Hernandez, the ironman catcher since his sophomore season. A wrist injury has sidelined him since part of the Fresno State series and this past series against Utah Valley. Hernandez would be a welcome addition since he has a solid history in past tournaments, batting 12 for 27 with four home runs. He is hitting .252 with six home runs and 22 RBIs.

"Cleared or not, I'm either going to do it hitting, playing or I'm going to do it in the dugout, where we need to help the team out," Hernandez said.

Meanwhile, Hawai'i drew the fifth seed for the tournament after Nevada remained in sixth following a 9-3 loss yesterday to San Jose State, which is the WAC regular season champion.

Making the biggest jump in seeding was defending WAC tournament and College World Series champion Fresno State. The Bulldogs entered the final series at Sacramento State in seventh place, but moved past the Hornets with a four-game series sweep.

Fresno State is tied with New Mexico State at 12-12, but the Bulldogs earned the higher seed after a series of tie-breakers. They split their regular season series and had the same conference road records. The tie-breaker used was record against the top-seeded team — in this case, San Jose State. The Bulldogs split their series with the Spartans, while the Aggies dropped 3 of 4.

The tournament is double-elimination with the champion getting an automatic NCAA Regional berth.

This is the last conference tournament scheduled for a conference member's venue. It will be held at Hohokam Park in Mesa, Ariz. the next three years.