Rainbow baseball, gotta glove it.

Hawai'i flashed its leather in the clutch to hold off Sacramento State, 3-2, last night to take the Western Athletic Conference series opener.

With New Mexico State's 5-2 win against Louisiana Tech, the Rainbows (30-12 overall, 8-6 WAC) closed to a half-game of LaTech and Fresno State, both tied for first at 9-6.

Steven Wright (8-2) gave up two runs, seven hits and a walk with four strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. Darrell Fisherbaugh tacked on 1 1/3 scoreless innings for his eighth save in front of an ecstatic crowd of 1,974 at Les Murakami Stadium.

Matt Campbell (4-8) went the distance, giving up three runs (two earned) on eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts in eight innings for the Hornets (20-25, 8-8).

But it was defense that was the difference.

"That's how we won the game," Wright said. "It wasn't me. It was defense."

The big play came with two outs in the top of the eighth, after Wright gave up back-to-back singles to put the tying and go-ahead runners on base. Fisherbaugh came in to face catcher Buddy Morales, who pulled Fisherbaugh's first offering to third. The ball deflected off third baseman Justin Frash to shortstop Eli Christensen, who threw out Morales to end the threat.

"I was just thinking to get to it and I saw that it wasn't a fast runner and I had a play on it," Christensen said. "We just stayed in it defensively and fought our way through it."

It was one of several fine defensive plays made by both teams. Morales was robbed of a hit in the sixth when his sharp grounder deflected off first baseman Luis Avila, but was fielded by second baseman Jon Hee, who threw to Wright covering first for the out.

Payback came in the form of Hornets' third baseman David Flores, who had 10 assists, some on diving or sliding stops, as well as charging in on a bunt.

"Flores was Brooks Robinson tonight," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "That's as good a performance we've seen against us defensively. It was a good college baseball game to watch."

Adam Roberts was robbed of a possible two-run single in the fourth when Hornets' center fielder Jim Strombach (Moanalua 2002) made a diving catch for the third out.

Ironically, as good as the Hornets were defensively, an error let the deciding run score. Trailing 2-1 in the sixth, Avila led off with a single and scored on Matt Inouye's triple that deflected off left fielder Brian Conradi's glove, with the ball rolling to the center-field wall. Inouye, as always running at full speed, hastened a relay from second baseman Gary Johnson, whose throw to third bounced into the dugout, allowing Inouye to score to make it 3-2.

"I owe that all to coach Meij (third-base coach Keith Komeiji)," Inouye said. "He was telling me to 'round the bag, round the bag,' and then hold me up. It was a great job of base coaching. We just had to find a way to get it done."

The Rainbows struck first with one out in the third when Christensen went the opposite way, driving a ball down the right-field line that cleared the wall for his first home run of the season.

"I was just hoping it would stay fair," Christensen said. "I didn't think I hit it high enough, but I knew I hit it well and was looking for at least two (bases). It felt good. I hit it square."

The Hornets took the lead in the fifth. Pat Keiper led off with a walk and, one out later, scored on Brian Blauser's double to left. After an infield single by Conradi that was deflected off Wright's glove to shortstop Christensen put runners at the corners, Blauser scored on Montana Dye's sacrifice fly to left to make it 2-1.

The Rainbows needed the defensive effort and a strong outing by Wright. In April, the junior right-hander is 4-0 with a 1.26 earned run average. He has 33 strikeouts in 22 1/3 innings.

Although UH can pull into first place with a win tonight combined with another LaTech loss, it's not as important as just playing well, Inouye said.

"We're not worried about La-Tech, Fresno," he said. "We're just trying to win as many as we can ... to give ourselves a chance to get in postseason."

The series continues at 6:35 tonight. There were only about 300 tickets left as of last night.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.