Rick Vanderhook learned one valuable lesson during his first trip to Hawaii as the Cal State Fullerton head coach.

"I’m coming in Wednesday next time, I’ll tell you that," he said.

The fourth-ranked Titans bounced back from ace Thomas Eshelman’s worst start of the season on Friday to record back-to-back shutouts of the Rainbows and win the series on Sunday.

Sophomore Grahamm Wiest and closer Michael Lorenzen combined on a two-hitter as Cal State Fullerton defeated Hawaii 3-0 in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,572.

The Titans (36-7, 12-3) held the ‘Bows scoreless over the final two games after losing the opener a day after arriving in Hawaii on Thursday. The victory allowed Fullerton to remain a game up on Cal State Northridge, which swept Pacific, with four weeks remaining in the season.

"(Hawaii) is the best nine-win team I’ve ever seen and I feel fortunate and lucky to get out of here winning two of three," Vanderhook said. "They’re going to help us along the road because we’re done with them and with the people they have to play, they’ll give us some help beating those teams."

Wiest allowed two hits over eight innings with five strikeouts, and Lorenzen earned his league-leading 13th save.

The Titans still haven’t lost a series all year.

"Obviously we tried to sweep the series, but once the loss is over our goal was to come out and win the series," said Wiest, who walked one and allowed only one batter to reach second. "I established the fastball early, and when I can do that, I can pitch off my offspeed, which is my bread and butter,"

The Titans were the ninth team ranked at some point during the season that Hawaii (9-29, 4-11) has played this year.

Senior Corey MacDonald (4-5) allowed three runs on seven hits in eight innings to take the loss.

After giving up 23 runs in three games to Northridge in the previous series, Hawaii held Fullerton to 11 runs.

Fifteen of Hawaii’s 29 losses have been by three runs or less.

"Obviously we got it shoved the last two games offensively," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "We’ve played (nine) ranked teams this year and I can honestly say that’s the best team we’ve played."

Marc Flores and Kalei Hanawahine got the only two base hits for Hawaii, which has been shut out seven times.

Wiest controlled the game with his offspeed pitches a day after Justin Garza dominated the Rainbows with a fastball that reach the mid-90s.

"Last night the guy had a lot more velocity than today and they did a good job of switching things up on us and we couldn’t lay off his offspeed stuff," Flores said.

MacDonald threw seven straight balls to start the game and walked the leadoff batter again in the second inning.

Matt Chapman doubled and scored twice, and Lorenzen went 3-for-4 with a run scored before finishing off the game on the mound.

"The first three or four innings I was having trouble with my arm slot and had to rely on my changeup a little bit," MacDonald said. "After the fourth inning I was able to make some adjustments and work the fastball down after that and was the pitch I relied on the rest of the game."

MacDonald allowed only two hits over his final four innings and went at least eight innings for the fourth time in 10 starts.

He’s pitched at least 62⁄3 innings in every start since his first against Oregon to begin the year.

"Corey deserved a better fate today," Trapasso said.

The Rainbows will hit the road for 10 of their final 13 games, beginning with a series at Pacific on Friday.

The Tigers are tied with UC Davis, which the Rainbows host in their final home series May 17-19, for last place in the Big West.