Little brother proved pesky once again for the University of Hawaii baseball team.

After pulling out two tight games with Hawaii Hilo last year, the first on a walk-off homer, the Rainbow Warriors managed to fend off the Division II Vulcans twice on Saturday to sweep a doubleheader at Les Murakami Stadium.

In the opener, the Rainbows saw a two-run lead erased by a home run by UH Hilo leadoff hitter Chris Aubort in the eighth inning before pulling out a 3-2 victory on Scotty Scott’s walk-off single that scored Dallas Duarte from second in the bottom of the ninth.

The ’Bows had a three-run lead cut to one midway through the second game but pulled away for a 6-2 victory.

Scott’s game-winner in the opener kept a long day at the park from stretching beyond the scheduled 18 innings, and UH coach Mike Trapasso said he “felt like mentally we just had a vibe where we were pacing ourselves” over the course of the afternoon and evening.

“We have to be better than that, and we have to be a little more relentless,” Trapasso said.

“But that’s not to take anything away from how we played,” he added. “We played clean, our guys threw strikes for the most part, and I don’t want to take anything away from Hilo. They played extremely well. Tip your cap to them because every game we play is similar to these.”

The series concludes with a single game today at 1:05 p.m., with UH senior Logan Pouelsen slated to make his first start of the season. Pouelsen was expected to be part of the rotation but was sidelined by a tender arm for the first two weekends. Freshman Austin Teixeira is expected to be the first out of the bullpen.

“(Pouelsen) feels good, and we need to get him out there,” Trapasso said. “He was up to 75 pitches in his last scrimmage before he got tender. So we’ll see how far he can go.”

UH right-hander Aaron Davenport had his start pushed back a day when Friday’s scheduled series opener was canceled due to rain and struck out eight over six shutout innings while giving up five hits and a walk. Aubort’s homer kept Davenport from earning a decision and reliever Tyler Dyball recovered to retire six of the next seven batters he faced and picked up the win.

“I really give a lot of credit to Tyler Dyball,” Trapasso said. “A lot of guys in his situation will struggle, will try to hide the baseball and won’t pitch to contact any more. But I thought he made his best pitches the last two innings after the home run. He really went and attacked the zone and attacked the hitters.”

UH Hilo senior Brandyn Lee-Lehano gave up single runs in the second and third innings on RBI singles by Dustin Demeter and Kole Kaler, but kept the Vulcans within striking distance while throwing 99 pitches over seven innings.

Dyball took over for Davenport, who had thrown 95 pitches, in the seventh and got defensive help from right fielder Tyler Best. The sophomore made a sliding catch of a foul fly, snagging it with his bare hand after it popped out of his glove. One batter later, he dove to make a grab of a flyball in the right-center gap.

UH Hilo ninth-place hitter Trey Yukumoto led off the eighth with a single into left field and Aubort pulled a pitch over the right-field fence to tie it up at 2-2.

With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Duarte was hit by a pitch and advanced on Stone Miyao’s grounder to first. Scott then capped a 4-for-5 performance by sending a sinking liner into center field that hit the turf in front of a diving Rustin Ho and Duarte came around with the game-winner.

The Rainbows gave sophomore right-hander Cade Halemanu a 3-0 lead through three innings in the second game. Two runs scored on an error on Demeter’s hard grounder to the right side in the first inning and Tyler Best drove in Alex Baeza with a double down the third-base line in the third.

But the Vulcans rallied with Teppei Fukuda’s sacrifice fly in the fifth and Yukumoto’s RBI single in the sixth.

UH opened up some cushion in the sixth when Adam Fogel drove in Tyler Murray with a sacrifice fly and Scott later scored on a wild pitch. Murray added to the lead in the seventh with a single to score Demeter.

Halemanu struck out four and gave up five hits over five innings and earned the win. UH reliever Buddie Pindel entered in the seventh and retired the first eight batters he faced before giving up a single to Casey Yamauchi and got a flyout to end the night.

“That’s three outings in a row where he’s been outstanding,” Trapasso said of Pindel. “He just comes in, he absolutely pounds the zone with three pitches, he’s got some deception to him and guys don’t really barrel him.”