With a feverish Saturday night surge, the Hawaii baseball team charged to a 4-1 victory over 14th-ranked Cal State Fullerton at Les Murakami Stadium.

A crowd of 2,848 — all 4,327 tickets were sold — saw the Rainbow Warriors even the three-game series at a victory apiece and improve to 25-16 overall and 7-7 in the Big West. The Titans fell to 27-16 and 9-5. The series finale is today at 1:05 p.m.

“We just played better in all phases,” said UH coach Mike Trapasso, whose ’Bows rebounded from a 3-1 loss on Friday night. “Even the two errors we made were on tough plays. But it all starts with Jackson (Rees), and the job he did giving us eight strong (innings).”

Rees had moved back into the starting rotation a week ago when Dominic DeMiero experienced tenderness in his pitching arm. DeMiero is now fine; Rees is even better.

Rees allowed five hits and two walks while striking out four in eight innings. He threw 117 pitches, of which 71 were strikes. He also worked out of jams when he induced double plays in the fifth and eighth innings.

“That’s what you have to have when you play Fullerton,” Trapasso said. “You’ve got to match them pitch for pitch because they’re so good.”

Center fielder Dylan Vchulek and second baseman Johnny Weeks had two hits apiece and drove in two runs in support of Rees.

Down 1-0, the ’Bows scored all four of their runs in the fifth inning.

Chayce Ka‘aua, playing in just his third game after recovering from a hernia, singled to open the inning. One out later, Josh Rojas rocketed a double to the right-field wall, advancing Ka‘aua to third. Jordan LaFave fouled off three consecutive pitches before striking out looking on an inside slider.

That brought up Vchulek, who worked the count to 3-2 against left-hander John Gavin’s three-pitch repertoire. Vchulek pulled a changeup down the left-field line to score Ka‘aua and Rojas for a 2-1 lead.

“(Gavin) came at me with a lot of different pitches,” Vchulek said. “He ended up leaving a changeup up. I was ready for the fastball and kind of adapted. I sank my legs a little bit. When I’m back to what’s natural with my swing, good things happen when you swing it. I’m going to keep swinging.”

Weeks then hit an opposite-field homer to right to extend the ’Bows’ lead to 4-1.

“He came at me with a lot of fastballs,” Weeks said of Gavin. “I was late on a few before. I finally got my timing right, and it went out. I didn’t think it was going to go out.”

It was Weeks’ first career home run at Murakami Stadium.

“I’ve hit the wall a few times, but that one carried out,” Weeks said.

Trapasso mused that Weeks’ home run last week at Cal State Northridge should have come with an asterisk because of strong winds. “The one he hit tonight was a legit home run,” Trapasso said.

Dylan Thomas pitched a scoreless ninth for his seventh save.

Dillon Persinger led off the ninth with a single off Thomas, and advanced to third on a balk and groundout. But Thomas got the final two outs, including a called third strike on pinch hitter Niko Pacheco to end the game.

“I wasn’t too dialed in the bullpen,” Thomas said. “I had to get to the mound and make sure I was locked in. I hung one of my sliders (to Persinger), but then I made sure I was ahead (in the count).”

On the final pitch, Thomas said, “he thought it was going to be (toward) his hip, but cut back over the plate” for the strikeout.

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