Hawai'i welcomed back one player from illness and another from injury last night in a 10-3 romp of New Mexico State to clinch the Western Athletic Conference baseball series and move into sole possession of second place.

Left fielder Robbie Wilder rolled out of bed with the flu to hammer his first collegiate home run and pitcher Myles Ioane made his season debut with 1 1/3 innings of relief to aid starter Justin Costi before 2,170 at Les Murakami Stadium. Ioane missed most of last season with a stress fracture in his elbow.

With the win, the Rainbows (29-11 overall, 7-5 WAC) surpassed last year's win total and closed to 1 1/2 games of first-place Louisiana Tech (9-4), which lost, 11-10, in 10 innings to Sacramento State yesterday. The Rainbows are in second place by percentage points over third-place Fresno State (8-6).

Costi (5-1) pitched a season-high 7 2/3 innings, allowing two runs, five hits and a walk with eight strikeouts. Ioane gave up a run to finish off the injury-plagued Aggies (14-28, 1-10).

"It felt good to get past the seventh," Costi said.

Costi and Ioane said they basically used fastballs.

"Mainly, we just hit the outside corner pretty much every time," Costi said. "Once we got two strikes, we could throw our breaking pitches."

Costi lost the shutout bid in the eighth, when the Aggies managed to get more than one runner aboard for the first time in the game. A two-out flare single by Joseph Godinez with runners at first and second scored the run to spoil the shutout. Costi walked his only batter and then hit Jason Long with the bases loaded that made it 10-2 before being pulled for Ioane.

But the Rainbows did their best to help Costi along. In the sixth, Marcus Quade doubled to lead-off the inning, took third on a fly out to right, but was stranded there when Costi struck out Godinez. Center fielder Derek DuPree then made a diving catch to rob Vince Rodden of an RBI hit.

"Everyone was laying out (for me) tonight," Costi said. "I couldn't ask anything more from them."

"That's Derek and that's these guys," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "They're playing with some character and giving it their best right now. We just have to continue pitching the way we have."

The Rainbows also tattered NMSU pitching for 15 hits. Wilder led the attack with three RBIs, two on his home run over the original right-field wall that capped a five-run fifth against NMSU starter Jason Conner (2-3).

"I don't think anyone really expected it," Wilder said of his homer. "It was nice running around the bases. I'll remember that one."

Wilder, who was 2 for 5, was feeling so ill Friday he watched the game on TV from home.

"That was the worst, watching it at home," he said. "We won and all, but it reminded me of years of the past, not playing and all. I'm over that."

Ioane was happy to be back after pitching just 6 1/3 innings from three appearances last season before being shutdown because of elbow problems.

"I was a little nervous at the beginning," he said. "When I got the fly ball in the eighth (for the third out), I was so happy."

Ioane allowed a run in the ninth when he walked Jason Rodriguez to start the inning. Rodriguez stole second, took third on a ground out to second and scored on Joaquin Ortiz's sacrifice fly to center.

DuPree, Justin Frash, Matt Inouye and Jon Hee had two hits each for the Rainbows.

The Rainbows will try for their second WAC series sweep of the season at 1:05 p.m. today.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.