Rainbows hang on

At least Oregon won’t have to worry about Matt Sisto on its next trip to the islands.

The Hawaii senior opened the 2012 season continuing his dominance of the Ducks, tossing seven scoreless innings in a 4-1 victory on Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

A sold-out crowd of 3,553 saw Sisto improve to 3-0 in four starts against Oregon, ranked No. 27 by Collegiate Baseball. In 261⁄3 innings, he has allowed three earned runs, going at least six innings in all four games.

"I don’t know, it’s just pitching against Oregon, a Pac-12 team," Sisto said. "Nothing different, just pound the zone against them, throw strikes and work ahead."

Hawaii improved to 8-3 in openers under head coach Mike Trapasso, who got the quality start from his Friday night starter that he was looking for.

"That’s what we’re hoping he can do for us all year," Trapasso said. "We need him to go out there and do what he did tonight.

"We didn’t make any errors, made the routine plays and Kaeo (Aliviado) made an above-average play to end the game."

Oregon trailed 4-0 with two outs in the ninth when it strung together three straight hits off reliever Brent Harrison. Senior Jesse Moore replaced Harrison with runners on first and second and allowed a single to Thomas Walker to load the bases.

Second baseman Aaron Payne took a strike from Moore before lifting a fly ball into the foul ground behind third base, forcing Aliviado to make a diving catch to end the threat.

"You just saw what happens when you’re up in the zone against a really good club like Oregon," Trapasso said. "All of a sudden they can get some hits, but that’s about all you could ask for from Sisto and our pitching staff on opening night."

Sisto threw seven shutout innings for the second time in his career, matching a start against Utah Valley in 2009 as a freshman.

He allowed eight hits in that game, compared to only two against Oregon, including one that came on a bunt down the third-base line. He struck out five and walked two, earning the 16th win of his career.

"We played great defense, we grinded, scored a few runs, and that’s how we’re going to play games this year," said Sisto, who retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced.

Hawaii squeezed four runs out of eight hits to beat the Ducks for the 12th time in 15 meetings.

Collin Bennett singled and scored twice and freshman Stephen Ventimilia finished 1-for-3 with a run, an RBI and a stolen base, putting constant pressure on the Oregon defense with his speed on the base paths.

"I’m the kind of guy where stats are kind of thrown out the window," Ventimilia said. "I’m just trying to get on base and wreck havoc on the base paths."

Bennett’s two-out single scored the first run of the season as UH’s top of the lineup gave Oregon starter Alex Keudell fits.

Breland Almadova reached base on a grounder up the middle that was bobbled by shortstop J.J. Altobelli, who was a two-year starter at third base before switching positions this season.

Almadova quickly stole second and drew multiple looks from Keudell, who then issued his first walk of the game to Ventimilia, setting up Bennett’s hit.

Almadova finished 2-for-5 with a run scored and matched Ventimilia with a stolen base.

"Depending on how the lineup is going to be all year, when you’re in a situation with Kaeo and then Breland leading off and Stephen behind him, that’s a lot of speed," Trapasso said.

Keudell, who was on a strict pitch count, allowed an unearned run on four hits in four innings and took the loss.

The teams will play the second of a four-game set tonight at 6:05. Left-hander Jarrett Arakawa will start for the Rainbows opposite Oregon right-hander Jake Reed.