All year long, every break has seemed to go against the Hawaii baseball team.

On Friday night, the ball finally bounced UH’s way.

Austin Wobrock hit a two-out infield single on a ball he tried to check his swing on, allowing Conner George to score from third with the winning run in the eighth inning to give Hawaii a 4-3 win over Cal State Fullerton.

Lawrence Chew worked a perfect ninth inning to give a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,935 a reason to celebrate as Hawaii (8-27, 4-9 Big West) won for just the second time in 12 games.

Cal State Fullerton, ranked as high as third in one of the three major polls, dropped to 34-7 and 10-3 in the Big West, just a game up on Cal State Northridge.

"We’re not going to apologize for that check swing because that’s exactly what’s been happening to us all year," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "I’m happy for our guys because that’s how hard they’ve worked. They deserved something good to happen to them and they deserved a break."

With the score knotted at 3, George worked a leadoff walk and Marc Flores singled to right to put the go-ahead run on third with nobody out.

Right-hander Koby Gauna (2-1), who allowed two hits in four innings of relief, blew a fastball past Andre Real for the first out.

Left-hander Tyler Peitzmeier replaced Gauna and struck out Kalei Hanawahine after he failed twice to put down a bunt, bringing Wobrock to the plate.

Wobrock tried to hold up on the first pitch from Peitzmeier, but the ball glanced off his bat and dribbled down the third-base line for a hit, scoring George with the winning run.

"Of course that was my plan the whole time," Wobrock said smiling. "We can still turn the season around and that’s what we are playing for every day because we’re still grinding."

Fifth-year senior Connor Little grinded as hard as anyone Friday night, giving the Rainbows 7 2/3 gutsy innings on 120 pitches.

Just 24 hours after finding out he was starting, Little allowed three runs on eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

"We wanted it more today," Little said. "Guys were picking each other up, it was a team effort, and I was so happy to have that defense behind me today."

Little outdueled Cal State Fullerton freshman Thomas Eshelman, whose 1.23 ERA entering the game was 15th in the country.

Eshelman had his shortest outing of the season, allowing three runs on six hits in 3 1/3 innings. He failed to pitch into the sixth inning for the first time all year.

"We were able to have guys in scoring position all night, even when we couldn’t get guys in," Trapasso said. "(Fullerton) is so good and so talented and I’m happy for our guys because I tell the guys, you work hard, you execute, you play the game the right way and the scoreboard will eventually take care of itself."

The Rainbows did their damage in the third inning, which began with singles by Wobrock and Tyler Young.

Stephen Ventimilia, who singled in the first inning, hit a ground ball to short that Richy Pedroza threw into right field trying to start a double play.

With runners on second and third and already one run in, Pi‘ikea Kitamura drove a base hit to right to score Wobrock. Kaeo Aliviado followed with an RBI groundout to give UH a 3-1 lead.

Real and Hanawahine each singled off Eshelman in the fourth, and Wobrock laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up.

Fullerton coach Rick Vanderhook wasted no time going to the bullpen, and Gauna got a strikeout and a groundout to keep the Rainbows from doing any further damage.

Chew (1-1) retired all four batters he faced to earn the win.