After a series of intense practices during its seven days off, Hawaii had an unusual confidence for a team 2-15.

"There’s no way we couldn’t have been confident coming out tonight," junior Conner George said. "Like (hitting) coach (Rusty McNamara) told us after practice (Tuesday), (we’re) the most prepared 2-15 team in the nation and we felt good coming into tonight."

George elected not to hear the scouting report on left-handed reliever Albert Minnis and calmly lined a three-run triple down the right-field line to spur the Rainbows to a 6-1 win over Wichita State on Wednesday night.

George’s hit highlighted a four-run fourth inning and senior Connor Little worked a career-high eight innings to help Hawaii (3-15) string together consecutive wins for the first time all year in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,005.

"I’ve had faith in these guys through this whole thing, but that doesn’t mean I’ve had a good vibe through this first month," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "There’s no question that with practices we had, I felt confident we’d go out there and be better."

Stephen Ventimilia reached base three times for the Rainbows, who scored at least six runs for just the second time all season.

Andre Real went 2-for-4 with a run and Kaeo Aliviado tripled and scored for UH, which had three of its seven hits go for extra bases.

"We’ve been waiting for a while to get some runs across the board and George had a big hit today," Little said. "That’s the kind of hits we’ve been looking for, especially for the pitching staff, because it gives us that extra push."

Little (1-3) picked up his first win in the longest outing of his career. He threw 112 pitches and gave up the lone run on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts.

"The first inning my change-up was up, but my fastball was down and I was hitting my spot," Little said. "My teammates made good plays behind me and kept me in the game."

Wichita State (11-9) got its only run on consecutive two-out hits after Little struck out the first two batters of the game.

Casey Gillaspie hit a double to the gap in left-center and Tyler Baker followed with an RBI single.

"They hit some rockets right at guys, but it’s about time the worm turned and we got a little mojo going our way," Trapasso said. "The two hits were on change-ups in that first inning and we threw about three change-ups the rest of the game after that."

Ventimilia did what he does best as Hawaii answered with a run in the bottom of the inning.

After a leadoff single, Ventimilia stole second two pitches later and advanced to third on a wild pitch that allowed him to score on one of three double plays turned by the Shockers.

"It was good that we answered back because it was a good team inning," Ventimilia said. "It brought up the morale a little bit that we answered back."

George gave Hawaii its biggest lead in nearly three weeks with his second triple of the season.

Wichita State starter Tobin Mateychick issued his fourth walk of the game to Aliviado to load the bases for George, who went with a 1-1 pitch into the corner in right field to score three runs.

"I didn’t look at the scouting report on purpose because I wanted to go up and do my thing lefty against righty," said George, who was the first batter Minnis faced. "I was looking for a fastball to hopefully drive in some runs and I put a good swing on it."

George’s hit was the only one allowed by Minnis, who went 2 2/3 innings in relief of Mateychick (2-2), who suffered the loss.

Four Shockers with 42 combined starts this year, including outfielders Mikel Mucha and Taylor Doggett and second baseman Tanner Dearman, were suspended for the game for a violation of team rules.

After the game, Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson met with his team for 25 minutes in foul territory near the visitors’ dugout.

Senior Corey MacDonald (1-3, 3.49 ERA) will try to pitch the Rainbows to their third win in a row in the second game of the series tonight at 6:35.

Wichita State will counter with right-hander Zach Beringer (1-0, 3.00) before going with ace Cale Elam (1-1, 2.84) on Friday.