There’s a reason Fresno State has won five of the past six Western Athletic Conference championships.

The Bulldogs showed their championship resiliency on Friday night, rallying for four runs in the top of the eighth inning to defeat Hawaii 5-3 and end the Rainbows’ four-game winning streak.

Aaron Judge tied the game with an RBI single and the Bulldogs (15-15, 1-1) went ahead on two RBI groundouts to even the series at a game apiece in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 3,118.

"Fresno got the job done and give them credit," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "We give up a couple of hits and then mess up the bunt and then the floodgates opened."

Jarrett Arakawa (3-3) was tagged with the loss after a throwing error on a Fresno State bunt helped ignite the Bulldogs rally.

Justin Charles and Pat Hutcheson singled to start the eighth off Arakawa, who needed only 82 pitches to get through seven solid innings.

Daniel Moultrie laid down a bunt that Arakawa threw low to first, allowing Charles to score.

With runners on second and third, Hawaii (18-13, 1-1) elected to pitch to Judge, Fresno State’s leading hitter. The 6-foot-7 sophomore sent a 3-2 pitch from Arakawa back up the box for a base hit to score Hutcheson to tie the game.

"I thought Judge did a great job getting that base hit because it was a great hit on his part," Trapasso said. "You’re in a situation with no outs where you’ve got to understand you’re not going to really be able to stop that guy scoring with no outs.

"We’ve pitched (Judge) well the whole series and Jarrett made a good pitch on that one … he just got the hit."

It was the first time in eight starts Arakawa allowed more than two earned runs, giving up five runs total — four earned — on eight hits with no walks and a season-high-tying eight strikeouts.

"I made a costly error and let it fall apart for one inning," Arakawa said. "Give credit to them, they got the hits."

Pi‘ikea Kitamura had two doubles and drove in two runs for Hawaii, which put the tying run in scoring position in the eighth.

After Collin Bennett was called out looking on a 3-2 pitch, Breland Almadova drew a walk and Zack Swasey singled to put runners on first and second.

FSU closer Taylor Garrison uncorked a wild pitch to move the runners up, but pinch hitters AJ Bayus and Conner George were unable to come up with the big hit as both struck out swinging.

"You know Fresno doesn’t want to get on a plane and go back home 0-3 and they were able to scratch out a win," said Kitamura, who had his team-best 14th multi-hit game. "It was a tough game."

Hawaii jumped on Fresno State starter Justin Haley early, scoring a run on the first of two RBI doubles by Kitamura.

Kitamura drilled a 2-0 offering from Haley to the gap in right-center, scoring Kaeo Aliviado, who reached on an infield single to extend his hitting streak to a career-high eight games.

Arakawa’s streak of 16 consecutive innings at home without allowing an earned run came to an end as the Bulldogs tied the game at 1-all in the second.

Austin Wynns led off with his team-leading 11th double and scored on a groundout by Chris Mariscal.

The Rainbows got back in front with a run in the fifth on a two-out RBI single by Trevor Podratz, who reached base in his first seven plate appearances in the series.

Stephen Ventimilia drew a one-out walk, which came back to hurt Haley. Ventimilia stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch before Podratz’s single back up the box drove him in for a 2-1 lead.

Kitamura stretched the UH lead to 3-1 in the seventh, ripping his second double of the game to left to drive in Aliviado, who reached on a fielder’s choice.

Haley (4-2) earned the win for the Bulldogs, allowing three runs on six hits in seven innings with three walks and five strikeouts.

Garrison worked a perfect ninth to earn his seventh save.

Freshman Scott Squier (3-1, 3.00 ERA) will try to win the series for the Rainbows in today’s finale at 1:05.