‘Bows on a roll

Two weeks ago, Hawaii fell one out short of its first series sweep.

Thanks to its second win in 30 games when trailing after the sixth inning, the Rainbows get a second chance at it today in their 2013 regular-season home finale.

Stephen Ventimilia hit the tie-breaking RBI single in the seventh and Austin Wobrock’s two-run single put the game away in the eighth as Hawaii rallied with five unanswered runs for a 6-2 victory over UC Davis on Saturday night in front of a sold-out Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,873.

Wobrock finished with three RBIs, and Kalei Hanawahine went 2-for-4 with a double and three runs scored for Hawaii (14-33, 9-14 Big West), which won the first two games of a conference series for the second time in three weeks.

UH failed to sweep Pacific two weeks ago when it gave up a three-run lead in the ninth inning.

"We owe to it to the seniors to send them out on a good note in their last three games at home on the Les," said Hanawahine, who is hitting .354 (17-for-48) in conference games. "We want to get this one (today)."

Marc Flores went 2-for-4 with a double to extend his hitting streak to 10 games, and Corey MacDonald won his third consecutive start.

The UH right-hander pitched at least six innings for the 12th consecutive start and needs six more in his final outing at UC Riverside to reach 100 for the season.

MacDonald (7-5) allowed two runs on seven hits in 71⁄3 innings with five strikeouts and no walks.

UH hasn’t walked a batter in this series.

"I had some fastball command today and usually I get away with some missed pitches every once in a while, but (UC Davis) capitalized on all of them," MacDonald said. "I thought it was an amazing team win today."

MacDonald retired the first nine batters he faced before Tino Lipson’s leadoff single in the fourth.

The left-handed-hitting Lipson came to bat with one out and the tying run on second in the eighth. Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso immediately went to reliever Lawrence Chew with MacDonald only at 84 pitches.

Chew struck out Spencer Henderson with the tying run on third and worked a perfect ninth inning to earn his third save.

"Tonight was one of those rare nights where Corey had a great pitch count going, but we had the two lefties in a row coming up and had Chew fresh," Trapasso said. "Chew did a great job getting the two outs in the eighth."

Adam Hurley gave UH a 1-0 lead with a two-out RBI single in the second before the Aggies (19-33, 5-18) tied the score at 1 in the fourth on an RBI double by Henderson.

MacDonald gave up four hits in the inning but only one run as Henderson was thrown out trying to go to third on the double.

Wobrock took the throw from Conner George in right and gunned down Henderson at third for the first of two UH double plays started by the Rainbows’ outfield.

"Normally that’s (Ventimilia’s), but I asked him if I could take this one and he told me to have it," said Wobrock, whose three RBIs were a career high.

Cameron Olson put the Aggies ahead 2-1 in the seventh with his first home run of the season.

Wobrock hit an RBI double, and Ventimilia followed with a run-scoring single up the middle off reliever Craig Lanza to put UH ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the inning.

Adam Hurley walked with the bases loaded to force in a run in the eighth, and Wobrock hit a ball back up the middle that was stopped by a diving Adam Young at short.

He wasn’t able to make a play at first, and Hanawahine scored all the way from second, barely beating the throw home on a ball that never left the infield.

"I was going hard with two outs and put my head down and ran as hard as I could," Hanawahine said. "I didn’t even know where the ball was, I knew it was up the middle somewhere, and Coach (Rusty McNamara) waved me through, so I just kept on going."

Junior Matt Cooper (2-7), who leads UH with a 3.31 ERA, will start today’s home finale.

After the game, Hawaii will honor eight seniors, including four-year starter Pi‘ikea Kitamura, who is one hit shy of 200 for his career.