Hawaii gave New Mexico State a taste of its own medicine on Friday night.

The Rainbows announced their ascension to the top of the Western Athletic Conference standings in a resounding way, blowing out the Aggies 14-2 in seven innings at Les Murakami Stadium.

A crowd of 2,855 was treated to UH’s second-highest scoring output of the season as the Rainbows scored their most runs since a 19-3 win over Wagner College in the second week of the season.

It was also the first 10-run mercy-rule win for UH since a 24-3 victory over these same Aggies in the regular-season finale a year ago.

Max Duval doubled and drove in three runs, and Colin Bennett singled and scored three times for the Rainbows (27-18, 7-4) who are now tied with the Aggies (30-16, 7-4), the highest-scoring team in the nation, for first place in the WAC.

"It’s a lot of fun when you go out there and everyone is swinging the bat like that," Duval said. "With them being (in) first place in our conference and for us to take the first two games, it obviously means a lot."

Hawaii scored multiple runs in four of the first five innings, culminating with a six spot in the fifth to take a 14-1 lead.

The Rainbows did all of this on just nine hits, as seven different NMSU pitchers all struggled to simply throw strikes.

Hawaii scored two runs in the fourth without getting a hit and was the beneficiary of eight NMSU walks, three hit batters and two costly errors.

"We were able to be aggressive early and get some runs on the board to help Jarrett (Arakawa) settle down and pitch ahead in the count," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "No lead is safe against these guys and you have to continue to play your game and throw strikes because (NMSU) is capable of pounding you."

The offense was a welcome sight for Arakawa, the UH starter who bounced back from his shortest outing of the season against Lousiana Tech. Arakawa (6-4) started off strong, striking out the first two batters, and earned his second complete game of the year, with five hits, one walk and a season-high nine strikeouts.

"We threw more cutters today than we have in a while with him and he was able to throw all four pitches for strikes," Trapasso said. "I had a feeling he’d be solid because he’s one of the better guys out there and he didn’t feel good about the way he pitched last week."

Pi‘ikea Kitamura went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, and Trevor Podratz added a two-run double and was one of four Rainbows to drive in at least two runs.

UH wasted little time jumping on NMSU starter Adam Mott (5-2), who allowed Hawaii’s first four batters to reach base. Kitamura singled off the glove of Zach Voight at short, scoring Stephen Ventimilia from third.

After Podratz walked to load the bases, Mott struck out Bennett before Breland Almadova beat out a potential double play ball at first, allowing Kaeo Aliviado to score for a 2-0 lead.

Cody Edwards cut the lead in half on one swing in the third, taking Arakawa deep over both fences in right field for a solo home run.

The home run was New Mexico State’s 38th this season and just the 16th UH has allowed.

The Rainbows went right back to their style of ball in the bottom of the inning, scoring four times on just two hits.

Kitamura and Bennett pulled off a double steal, which allowed Kitamura to score on a sacrifice fly by Almadova.

Zack Swasey followed with a two-out RBI single, and Mott walked UH’s eight and nine hitters to load the bases.

Ventimilia followed with a routine ground ball to third that got past Robert Lecount for an error, allowing two more runs to score to push the lead to 6-1.

Things only got worse for the Aggies, who allowed two more runs in the fourth without giving up a hit.

Reliever Casey Collins hit three batters, including Duval with the bases loaded to force in a run. Bennett scored for the second time in the game on a wild pitch by Randy Montoya to increase UH’s lead to 8-1.

Oceanic to televise WAC tournament

Oceanic Sports will televise all of Hawaii’s games in the WAC tournament at the end of the month in Mesa, Ariz.

UH will open either May 23 or 24, depending upon whether it receives a first-round bye as one of the top two finishers in regular-season play.

The last UH baseball postseason baseball games to be broadcast locally were in 1993 at an NCAA regional in College Station, Texas. Jim Leahey, who before the game honored Al Kam with the Chuck Leahey Award, will broadcast the games with Pal Eldredge.

Oceanic will also televise the WAC softball tournament next week..