No matter what Hawaii has thrown at No. 6 Oregon, the Ducks have managed to stay a step ahead of the Rainbows all series long.

Ryon Healy continued to feast on UH pitching, going 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs, and Oregon again pitched its way out of key situations late to pull away with a 9-5 victory over Hawaii on Sunday.

A Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,440 watched Oregon (3-0) hand UH (0-3) its third straight loss to start the season for the first time since 2009.

The Ducks can become the first team to sweep Hawaii in a season-opening series since Texas in 2004 and the first to sweep a four-game series at Les Murakami Stadium since Cal State Fullerton two years ago.

"We’ve got a chance to do something that I don’t think many teams have ever done," Oregon coach George Horton said. "But it won’t be easy because we have great respect for (Hawaii)."

Aaron Payne also had four hits and scored three runs for Oregon, which has won six straight against the Rainbows.

Unlike last year, when Oregon won consecutive games 14-5 and 12-6, the Rainbows have refused to let Oregon blow them out in this series.

When Oregon took a 5-1 lead in the seventh, Hawaii answered with two in the bottom of the inning.

Conner George hit a sacrifice fly and pinch hitter LJ Brewster followed with an RBI single that was misplayed by Kyle Garlick in right, allowing the tying run to reach second with one out.

Oregon piled on three more runs in the eighth, but again Hawaii got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the inning.

Pi‘ikea Kitamura hit an RBI double and Jerry Kleman followed with a run-scoring single before Garrett Cleavinger struck out consecutive batters to leave runners on second and third.

"When things go sideways, (we) have the experience factor to keep (our) poise," Horton said. ‘We dodged some bullets (Saturday) night and today and they didn’t flinch."

Hawaii hasn’t had an answer for Healy, who is hitting .667 (8-for-12) in the series and is 7-for-8 with three doubles and a homer in his last two games.

In his third year, the junior first baseman has yet to hit less than .310 in a season.

"(He’s) looked like a man here," Horton said. "He hasn’t missed many baseballs yet."

Kitamura gave Hawaii its first lead of the series with an RBI single in the first off Oregon starter Cole Irvin. Kitamura, hitless in his first two games, finished 2-for-3 with a double, two runs and two RBIs.

"(Saturday) night I felt like I was in a couple of situations where I should have come through for the team," Kitamura said. "It feels good to get that out of the way and stop thinking about it."

Irvin, who pitched for the USA Under-18 national team and was the 70th-ranked recruit by Baseball America, retired 16 of the next 17 batters following Kitamura’s single.

Between the second and sixth innings, UH managed to hit only one ball out of the infield.

"He’s a pretty special freshman," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "With the arms they have, for a freshman to make their starting rotation, we knew he was pretty good and he was special."

Senior Connor Little lasted 61⁄3 innings and was pulled with the Rainbows trailing 3-1. Reliever Lawrence Chew inherited a 2-0 count to Brett Thomas with runners on the corners and gave up a double to Thomas and an RBI single to Healy to push the lead to 5-1.

Little was Hawaii’s first starting pitcher in three games to make it out of the fifth inning.

"He was good. He gets us into the seventh and it’s a two-run game at the time and I really battled, but I just thought he lost it — I thought he was done," Trapasso said. "He was 2-0 with a lefty and I went to (Lawrence) Chew, but I thought about it when I was out there because (Little) wanted to finish it."

Little was pulled after 87 pitches and was charged with five runs allowed — four earned — on eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

"Getting back out there felt great and it felt like my junior year coming out and pitching against top-ranked teams," said Little, who sat out all of the 2012 season with an ankle injury. "Up around 75, 80 pitches, I still felt like I had some stuff in the tank … and I definitely feel good about how my arm is and where everything is at."

Hawaii’s bullpen really struggled, with senior Patrick O’Rourke giving up three runs on five hits in 2⁄3 of an inning. Scott Kuzminsky gave up the homer to Healy and walked two in 11⁄3 innings.

‘We know what we have to do," Trapasso said. "The guys who go out there to the mound need to be better."