In a fitting end to his final home game, Hawaii’s Pi‘ikea Kitamura squeezed one final ground ball and threw a bullet to first base.

The play locked up the first series sweep of the season for the Rainbows baseball team, which honored eight seniors following a 6-0 win over UC Davis on Sunday afternoon at Les Murakami Stadium.

Many of the 1,642 in attendance stayed well after the final out that came on the 559th assist of Kitamura’s four-year career.

The Kamehameha grad, who has made 220 starts in a Rainbows uniform, also picked up career hit No. 200 in a game filled with plenty of emotions.

"That’s just the way I wanted to end it, making the last out here," said Kitamura, who has sat out only three games in four seasons. "It’s a special place, it’s been my home for four years. … There were times this weekend in between pitches, in between innings, where I took everything in, took in the lights, took in the crowd, and I know how much I’m going to miss it."

The Rainbows (15-33, 10-14 Big West) completed their first series sweep since beating New Mexico State three straight at home last May, and will finish in seventh place in their first season in the BWC as long as they avoid losing every game at UC Riverside this week.

UC Davis (19-34, 5-19) entered the week leading the conference with a .289 batting average, but was held to four runs in three games.

Junior Matt Cooper (3-7) tossed eight scoreless innings of five-hit ball, and Jon Flinn worked a perfect ninth to complete UH’s third shutout of the season.

"All three starters threw exceptionally well this weekend," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "We didn’t make an error in three games, we had one walk, we got timely hits and it was well played for the entire weekend and that’s fun."

The Rainbows scored 11 of their 17 runs in the series after the sixth inning, including four in the eighth on Sunday.

Three relievers, including ex-Rainbow Robert Parucha, combined for four walks in the inning.

Max Duval, a two-year senior who got a rare start at designated hitter, drew his third walk of the game with the bases loaded to force in a run.

Austin Wobrock, who hit .545 (6-for-11) with five RBIs in the series, brought in another run with a walk, and Stephen Ventimilia hit a two-run single for a 6-0 lead.

"For some reason, after that seventh inning is when we started scoring a lot of our runs," Wobrock said. "We scored first every time in the series and we’ve been doing that better recently and it’s helping us win games."

Hawaii is 6-4 in its last 10 games and is guaranteed a better winning percentage than the 2002 season, when it finished 16-40.

Cooper earned his first win since March 23 against Wichita State and nearly matched the three-hit shutout he threw against Gonzaga 11 days earlier.

He was at 87 pitches after eight, but stayed in the dugout for the ninth after a long break between innings.

"I was going to leave Coop in there, but when we separated and got to (6-0), I knew it was a long inning," Trapasso said. "Plus I wanted to get Jon Flinn and I was even thinking of getting Patrick O’Rourke out there to throw a little bit as seniors, but we got the quick 1-2-3 inning."

Cooper allowed just one run in his first 281⁄3 innings at home this year, but began to fatigue in mid-April.

He had one of his better outings last week at Long Beach State and improved on that against the Aggies, giving up just one walk with five strikeouts.

"Physically I felt a lot better," Cooper said. "When you get tired, you’ve just got to power through it."

Cooper, who lowered his ERA to a team-best 2.99, is one of three Rainbows pitchers to top the 80-inning mark this year and has decided to take the summer off to rest his arm for the fall.

Right-hander Corey MacDonald can become the first UH pitcher to throw 100 innings in a season since Ian Harrington and Steven Wright in 2006 if he can last at least six innings against the Highlanders in his scheduled start on Friday.

Seven Rainbows combined for UH’s eight hits. Junior Marc Flores drew a walk in the sixth inning and lined out to center in the eighth to go 0-for-3 and end a 10-game hitting streak.