Three outs away from his first nine-inning complete game, Connor Little politely told his coach he wasn’t coming out of the game.

"Coach (Mike Trapasso) came up to me and told me I was done and I let him down easy and said, ‘no, I’m not done,’ " Little said. "It is definitely something I will remember for a long, long time."

The fifth-year Hawaii senior scattered nine hits in his final outing at Les Murakami Stadium to pitch the Rainbows to a 5-2 victory over UC Davis in the series opener on Friday night.

A crowd of 2,350 saw Hawaii (13-33, 8-14 Big West) jump into a tie with UC Riverside for seventh place in the conference with five games to play.

Little (2-6) struck out five without a walk to record Hawaii’s sixth complete game of the season.

It came 1,511 days after Little made his first home start for UH in 2009 against Coastal Carolina.

"When you see a guy that’s been here five years, have great ups and downs, and finish with a CG, that’s a great feeling," Trapasso said. "I took him out (after the eighth inning) but he said (he) could go one more and even though I didn’t have my heart in it, I said, ‘hey, let’s do it. But if you throw one ball you’re coming out.’ "

Little got three outs on three pitches in the ninth despite giving up a hit.

Steven Patterson laid down a bunt for a hit, but Hawaii turned its third double play of the game and John Williams grounded out to second to end it.

"Going into the later innings I was confident in my stuff and was hitting my spots," Little said. "The defense made (three) double plays for me, which was huge."

Little, who earned his first victory since March 20 against Wichita State, didn’t walk a batter for the second time this season and has given up just 16 free passes in 90 innings.

Pi‘ikea Kitamura went 1-for-2 with two walks, two runs and an RBI, and Kaeo Aliviado doubled twice and scored once while hitting leadoff for the first time since March 9 against Gonzaga.

Conner George broke a 2-for-34 skid over his last nine games with a two-out, two-run single in the seventh inning to put UH ahead 5-1.

The UH right fielder pulled the 121st pitch from UC Davis starter Harry Stanwyck through the hole between short and third to score Kitamura and Marc Flores, who needed a perfect slide to avoid the tag of catcher Spencer Brann and put UH ahead 5-1.

"I was so relieved," said George, who finished with three RBIs. "My approach was to go up and try to put the first strike he gave me in play and I’m damn lucky to get it in that gap."

Austin Wobrock had three of UH’s 10 hits, and Flores singled in the seventh inning to extend his hitting streak to nine games.

UC Davis (19-32, 5-17), which didn’t arrive in Honolulu until Friday afternoon after its flight Thursday night was canceled, entered the game leading the Big West in hitting with a .289 average.

Stanwyck (4-7) threw 136 pitches in the loss, allowing four earned runs with three walks and four strikeouts.

Hawaii played without backup catcher Tyler Young, who will have surgery on his injured right shoulder June 7 and is only available to hit.

Freshman Alan Baldwin, who is now the backup to starting catcher Trevor Podratz, will have surgery on his wrist after the season ends.

Baldwin originally suffered the injury in practice a day before the season opener.

Kamehameha’s Ramie honored

Longtime Kamehameha head baseball coach Vern Ramie was honored prior to the game as the recipient of the 26th annual Chuck Leahey Award.

Ramie played three years at Hawaii before he was drafted in the 12th round of the 1979 MLB draft by the Toronto Blue Jays.

He advanced as high as Triple-A before retiring.

Ramie began coaching at Kamehameha in 1991 and has won five ILH titles and one state championship. He coached current UH players Pi‘ikea Kitamura and Kalei Hanawahine.