Tyler Brashears was headed for a quick night when Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso came out to talk to him in the second inning.

From then on, Brashears made it a long night for the Oklahoma Sooners.

The Rainbow Warrior right-hander allowed one unearned run over seven quality innings and Cody Culp bailed Hawaii out of a jam in the eighth inning to help UH snap a three-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over Oklahoma on Friday night.

J.J. Kitaoka went 2-for-5 with an RBI double and Alex Sawelson had two hits and scored a run to provide just enough offense for Hawaii (7-11) to even the series against the Sooners (13-8).

"Our record doesn’t show how well we’ve been playing, and today we came out really strong," said Brashears, who struck out six and walked two. "We battled against a guy who threw in the upper-90s and did what we had to do."

Brashears (3-2) squared off against Oklahoma starter Alec Hansen (2-2), who made it through only four innings despite a fastball clocked up to 98 mph.

Four of the first seven batters reached base against Brashears, who matched his season total of two walks in the first two innings.

Oklahoma had two on and nobody out in the second and catcher Chris Shaw was ahead 2-0 in the count when Trapasso came out to talk with Brashears. Once the meeting was over, Brashears struck out Shaw on the next three pitches and was on his way.

"He was trying to be perfect," Trapasso said. "He knew this was a dangerous offensive club and was trying to be too fine. He’s got to be aggressive, down in the zone and trust his sink and that’s what he did, and then he can use his offspeed stuff."

With Brashears at 110 pitches, Trapasso went to the bullpen to start the eighth and got little from Matt Valencia, who threw eight of his nine pitches for balls to walk the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base to start the inning.

Culp came in with Oklahoma’s dangerous No. 3 hitter, Sheldon Neuse, at bat. Culp painted a 1-2 fastball on the outside corner to strike out Neuse for the first out and wound up retiring all six batters he faced to earn his fourth save.

"I love going in for pressure situations knowing I have a good defense behind me," Culp said. "(The strikeout) builds my confidence and gets me fired up to get that first out of the inning, especially with two guys on base, and then hopefully get the next two (outs) really fast."

Hansen struggled with his command as Hawaii managed two runs off the 6-foot-8 sophomore, who had to come out after throwing 94 pitches.

After setting Hawaii down in order in the first with two strikeouts, Hansen gave up a leadoff single to Sawelson in the second. Jordan Richartz hit a one-out pop fly straight up. Third baseman Joshua Ake overran the ball near home plate and it fell behind him. It was ruled a hit and Hawaii loaded the bases when Jonathan Weeks, one of four freshmen to start for UH, drew a walk.

Chayce Ka‘aua drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to center before Hansen struck out Kaeo Aliviado with the bases loaded.

UH left two on in the second but moved back in front 2-1 in the fourth on a two-out double by Kitaoka off the glove of Hunter Haley in left.

E—Ritchartz, Weeks. Sawelson 2. DP— Hawaii 1. LOB—Oklahoma 7, Hawaii 12. 2B—Neuse, Carpenter, Kitaoka. HBP—Ramirez. SF—Ka‘aua. SB—Hermelyn, Carpenter, Tasin. CS—Alspaugh.

HBP—by Hansen (Ramirez). PB—Shaw. Umpires—(Plate): Frank Plugeradt. (First): Mel Gatson. (Third): Billy Van Raaphorst. T—2:49. A—NA.