1 down, 2 to go

Les Murakami Stadium has been the cure for all of Hawaii’s ills this season.

The Rainbows snapped a four-game losing streak on Thursday night, keeping alive their hopes at sharing a regular-season Western Athletic Conference championship with a 2-0 victory over league-leading Nevada.

Collin Bennett homered and drove in both UH runs and Jarrett Arakawa (7-5) worked eight scoreless innings to the delight of the 1,836 in attendance.

Hawaii (29-22, 9-7) pulled within a game of Nevada (30-22, 10-6) and idle Sacramento State for the top spot in the WAC with its 24th win in its past 32 home games.

"We love playing here because we have the best fans in the nation," said Arakawa, who allowed five hits and one walk with five strikeouts. "It feels good to get back on the right track."

The Rainbows have been on both ends of a sweep the past two weeks, winning all three against New Mexico State two weeks ago at home before losing three straight at Sacramento State.

Now it’ll take two more wins against Nevada to share a regular-season championship and earn a first-round bye in next week’s WAC tournament.

"We played well, I thought," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "Jarrett did a great job mixing all of his pitches and getting us to the ninth."

Arakawa struck out Jamison Rowe on his 105th pitch to end the eighth with UH up 2-0. Lawrence Chew came in to face consecutive lefties to start the ninth and earned his third save by striking out Garrett Yrigoyen looking on a 3-2 pitch.

Breland Almadova had two hits and stole a base and Pi‘ikea Kitamura and Kaeo Aliviado both singled to extend their hitting streaks to six games.

Bennett recorded career RBI No. 100 in the top of the first, scoring Aliviado on a sacrifice fly to right.

Aliviado reached on a single and took third on a hit-and-run base hit by Kitamura.

Bennett then lifted a 2-0 pitch foul to right, forcing Brooks Klein to make a running catch before he hit the fence guarding the bullpen area, allowing both runners to tag up.

UH increased its lead to 2-0 in the fourth on Bennett’s third home run in five games. Nevada starter Braden Shipley fell behind again in the count and Bennett hit a line drive that got up and out quickly over the fence in left field.

"I thought Collin’s swing was the best swing he’s taken all year," Trapasso said. "He was fooled a little bit and out front, but he stayed on it, swung through the baseball and was able to drive it."

Shipley (8-4) struck out a career-high 12 in seven innings.

"I felt we were getting good swings even though we were missing some balls, but he was just that good," Trapasso said.

Arakawa started a series for the first time in his career, filling in for senior Matt Sisto, who likely won’t pitch this weekend with a groin injury.

Freshman Scott Squier (3-4, 3.39 ERA), who has pitched fewer than five innings in each of his past four starts, will take the mound tonight in Game 2.

"Squier hasn’t had a quality start in his last four of five starts, so he has a lot of work to do to try and keep this momentum going," Trapasso said. "Hopefully he can be efficient and stay in the game longer than he has been."