It was double or nothing for Hawai'i's Evan Zimny. But the way he had been going, he'll take it.

The junior right fielder tied a single-game school record by hitting three doubles to help the Rainbows down Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 9-2, yesterday at Les Murakami Stadium.

A crowd of 982 watched the Rainbows (19-8) sweep the four-game series from the Panthers (0-13).

Zimny, who entered the series batting .242, hopes to have shaken off his struggles at the plate with his 4-for-7 weekend. All of his hits were doubles. Zimny tied a UH record held by many, but last accomplished by Matt Inouye in 2005.

"Me and Coach Meij (hitting coach Keith Komeiji) have been working on a lot of hitting stuff," Zimny said. "It's starting to come together a lot better."

The left-handed hitting Zimny did not play the first two games of the series because the Panthers started left-handed pitchers. He started Saturday's second game of the doubleheader, batting 1 for 2 with a double and two walks. Yesterday, he was 3 for 5, scoring three runs.

The Rainbows hope Zimny can carry on as they start the Western Athletic Conference season Friday in a three-game series here against Nevada (13-12).

"It's great to see," UH coach Mike Trapasso said of Zimny's performance. "It couldn't come at a better time with conference starting next week."

Zimny was one of three Rainbows with three hits. Jon Hee was 3 for 5 with three RBIs and Landon Hernandez was 3 for 4 with a double and RBI.

Hawai'i starter Matt Daly (2-1) atoned for Friday's wild relief outing when he walked three in one inning of work, by pitching one-hit ball over five innings.

"I had to overcome that performance the other night," Daly said. "I think I just had one of those days Friday night and I thank the coaches for giving me the opportunity today to display what I really can do."

He did walk four — his seven walks in the series were the only ones allowed by the staff in 34 innings — and left having thrown 84 pitches, a relatively high number for five innings.

"Obviously, I had some walks today," he said. "It's something I'm trying to work on."

"He was still deep in counts, too many walks," Trapasso said. "But he got the job done, got us five innings of zeroes and obviously was much better."

Jayson Kramer pitched the next two innings, when UH's lead was just 2-0. He gave up a run in the sixth, but UH added three in the bottom of the inning and another in the seventh. Again UH scored, this time four in the bottom of the inning, to pad its lead.

UH's Craig Johnson pitched a perfect eighth, striking out two, and Nick Rhodes allowed a single in a scoreless ninth.

Hawai'i third baseman Justin Frash, the only Rainbow to start every game this season, was replaced in the top of the fifth inning by Vinnie Catricala. Trapasso said Frash had a headache that might have stemmed from Saturday night's collision with first baseman Kris Sanchez in their convergence on an infield pop caught by Sanchez.

Yesterday was the first time in the series the Rainbows scored first. Zimny's first double was followed by Hernandez's RBI single to give UH a 1-0 lead in the second inning against UWM starter Dan Luczak (0-4).

Luczak kept it a game until the sixth, when UH scored three on Matt Roquemore's RBI single and Hee's two-run flare single. Luczak pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing five runs, nine hits and three walks with three strikeouts.

The Rainbows added four in the seventh on back-to-back doubles by Zimny and Hernandez, RBI singles by Roquemore and Hee, and a wild pitch from Tom Zimmerman on ball four that allowed Nate Young to score from second base.

The Panthers have dropped 14 in a row counting last season's Horizon League tournament loss. It was UH's third series sweep of the season; it swept three from Pacific (6-17) and five from also still winless Chicago State (0-18).

UH has four home series left: Nevada (March 23 to 25), San Jose State (May 30 to April 1), Louisiana Tech (April 20 to 22) and Fresno State (May 19 to 21).

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.