Give a team enough chances and it’ll eventually come through.

Jerry McClanahan did exactly that for UC Irvine, which was 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position before his two-out RBI single in the seventh scored Chris Rabago with the eventual winning run in a 3-2 victory over Hawaii on Saturday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

Sam Moore shut the door on the Rainbow Warriors (14-15, 2-3 Big West), recording his NCAA-leading 12th save with two perfect innings of relief.

Moore combined with starter Elliot Surrey to retire 17 of the last 18 Hawaii hitters.

UH was limited to four hits.

"You put yourself in that position when you’re not scoring and you’ll play enough innings where a good team like this is going to score," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said.

"We managed the innings pretty well and we pitched much better than last night, but you’ve got to score more than two runs on four hits."

Surrey (4-2) won his third straight start with seven innings of four-hit ball. Hawaii’s only serious threat came in the fourth when Kaeo Aliviado one-hopped a ball to the wall in right-center for a triple that was UH’s first hit.

Jordan Richartz followed with a double to left and Marcus Doi blooped a one-out single behind Connor Spencer at first for three of UH’s four hits.

Adam Hurley’s two-out single in the seventh was the only time UH reached base after Doi’s single.

"We didn’t capitalize on our hitting," said Aliviado, who has hit safely in all five conference games. "We’re trying to come out here with our same approach and play our ball, but they got the better of us."

Moore, who is already within five saves of tying the school record, threw 17 of his 25 pitches for strikes and induced four groundballs, a fly out and a strikeout to avoid any late-inning drama.

Scott Kuzminsky (3-3) allowed one run on six hits in 41⁄3 innings in relief and took the loss.

Eight different players had hits for UC Irvine (20-10, 4-1), which finished with 11.

"They’re aggressive hitters and they know how to hit off-speed," Kuzminsky said. "You’ve really got to keep the ball down on them."

UCI got out to an early lead, taking advantage of Richartz’s fielding error in left in the first.

Chris Rabago doubled to left off Hawaii starter Scott Squier and headed for third on Spencer’s base hit, which got past Richartz, allowing Spencer to get all the way to third and Rabago to score.

UCI made it 2-0 in the second after successfully executing its second squeeze bunt of the series.

Kris Paulino, who homered in Friday night’s win, doubled to lead off and moved to third on the first of two UCI bunts.

On a 1-2 pitch from Squier, UC Irvine coach Mike Gillespie put on the squeeze play and Justin Castro executed to perfection, bunting it right back to Squier, whose only play was to first.

"They’ve just done a really good job against us here for two nights," Trapasso said.

With the score tied 2-2 in the fifth, UCI loaded the bases against Squier, who exited after walking Taylor Sparks on four pitches.

Kuzminsky came on to face the right-handed-hitting McClanahan, who hit .429 (6-for-14) last week, and got him to bounce into a fielder’s choice to second to keep the game tied.

McClanahan got revenge in the seventh, poking a two-out single over the head of Stephen Ventimilia at second to score Rabago, who led off the inning with a walk.

"Leadoff walks will score. It’s in the Bible if you look hard enough," Trapasso said. "Against a team like this, we have to play the way we have been the last few weeks and we haven’t in two games."

Squier allowed five hits and one earned run in 42⁄3 innings with one walk and five strikeouts. He failed to last at least five innings in his second straight start.

"We definitely have got to take a look at that," Trapasso said.

Lefty Jarrett Arakawa (2-0, 1.95) will start the final game of the series for Hawaii on Sunday afternoon at 1:05.

BIG WEST BASEBALL

Saturday
UC Irvine 3, Hawaii 2
UC Riverside 6, Cal State Northridge 2
Cal Poly 8, UC Santa Barbara 7
Cal State Fullerton 7, UC Davis 1
Long Beach State 4, UCLA 0

Sunday
UC Irvine at Hawaii, 1:05 p.m.
Cal State Northridge at UC Riverside
UC Davis at CS Fullerton
UC Santa Barbara at Cal Poly
UCLA at Long Beach State

UC IRVINE 3, HAWAII 2

E—Richartz. LOB—UC Irvine 11; Hawaii 3. 2B—Rabagao; Paulino; Richartz. 3B—Aliviado. HPB—Rabago; McClanahan. SH—Brontsema 2; Castro. SB—Rabago; Castro. CS—Sparks.

HBP—by Squier (McClanahan); by Squier (Rabago).

Umpires—(Plate): Joe Maiden. (First): Jake Uhlenhopp. (Third): Ruben Candelaria. T—2:20. A—2,905.