With starting spots still up for grabs, Hawaii sophomore Juliene Jones made his case to take the every-day job at second base.

Jones bounced back from an error in the first inning to make a game-saving play defensively in the top of the seventh.

He followed that with the game-tying single in the bottom of the inning to spur the Rainbow Warriors’ comeback as Hawaii rallied for a 5-2 win over Albany on Thursday night.

UH picked up its first win of the season in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 905 that saw Albany take a 2-0 lead after five innings.

Hawaii (1-4) put up a run in the sixth, three more in the seventh and one in the eighth to win the opening game of the series.

"Juliene Jones was the big story tonight," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "He played with confidence. He’s a tough kid, he got us some good at-bats and it was a really good game for him."

Albany (0-1) led 2-1 in the seventh when Cory Kingston hit a ground ball between first and second that nearly got through.

Jones dove to keep it in the infield and then gunned out DJ Hoagboon at home to keep Albany from extending its lead.

It proved critical as Hawaii scored three times in the bottom of the frame.

Jones followed Austin Wobrock’s one-out double with a single to left to tie the game. He stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error before Marcus Doi laced the go-ahead single back up the middle to give UH its first lead.

"It’s a great feeling to win," Doi said. "I felt we were a little tense in the first half of the game, but when we put up that first number we relaxed and started playing our game."

The comeback allowed starter Matt Cooper (1-0) to pick up a well-deserved win after throwing 114 pitches.

Cooper allowed five hits and one walk with five strikeouts and lowered his career ERA at home to 1.82. He has not given up an earned run in 12 innings this season.

"We knew he could get to 110 and we were in that situation where he was conditioned to go ahead and go one more batter and that was his last hitter in the game," Trapasso said. "I’m really proud of him because he really was just OK with his stuff and his command today. We haven’t seen the Coop we’ve been seeing all fall and all spring and he’s going to get more comfortable as he gets out there."

First baseman Marc Flores got the UH offense going with a one-out triple in the sixth.

Flores snapped an 0-for-16 skid with a hit that got past Josh Nethaway at first and rolled all the way to the wall.

The relay throw to third got away from Matt Hinchy for one of Albany’s four errors, allowing Flores to score.

"I finally got that monkey off my back," Flores said. "It’s been a frustrating start for me, but I finally hit one down the line and it was a good feeling. The ball got away and I heard coaches yelling to go for it so I made it home and almost threw up."

Eric Gleese earned the two-inning save, allowing a harmless one-out single in the ninth.

Doi finished 2-for-4 and Kaeo Aliviado singled in the first. Hawaii’s top two hitters in the lineup have at least one hit in each of the first five games.