Hawai'i's baseball team preaches being "Sunday tough" and yesterday it practiced it in a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over Nevada to take two of three of the Western Athletic Conference series.

Jon Hee's two-out RBI-single capped a two-run eighth inning for the Rainbows (21-9 overall, 2-1 WAC), who won a conference series season opener for the first time in UH coach Mike Trapasso's six seasons.

"Like I told our guys, I didn't see a lot of that toughness except for the ninth inning of the first two games," Trapasso said. "We had it today. Sometimes it's not measurable in hits and runs, but just in the demeanor in the way we're going about our business ... That was a Sunday-tough kind of game and you gotta have those to win series."

Added Hee: "Nevada's a good team; they're real scrappy. You have to play (well) all nine innings."

It was a slow-paced game that lasted 3 hours, 31 minutes for the 1,230 at Les Murakami Stadium. But after Hawai'i's rally, Tyler Davis, who had a bad outing the night before, mowed down the Wolf Pack (15-14, 1-2) in order quickly in the ninth.

While it is way too early, UH shares the WAC lead with Sacramento State, which is 4-2; the Hornets split a nonconference series over the weekend against Stanford.

Davis (4-0), who inherited runners at first and second with one out in the seventh for Matt Daly, denied Nevada by getting Matt Suleski to ground into an inning-ending double play.

But Davis walked the lead-off batter in the top of the eighth and later walked another before giving up a run-scoring single to Nick Sansone that gave Nevada a 4-3 lead.

Nevada, after trailing, 3-2, behind starter Kyle Howe, settled the game with left-handed relievers Jacob Kaup (4 2/3 scoreless) and Jarad Mitchell (1 scoreless). The Wolf Pack put their lead in the hands of Kody Keroher, who had served up Evan Zimny's game-winning three-run home run in Friday's 5-3 win.

With one out, freshman designated hitter Vinnie Catricala, whose two-run double in the ninth Saturday pulled UH to within a run in a 5-4 loss, doubled to left with one out off Keroher. But Keroher struck out Landon Hernandez after falling behind 3-0 in the count.

But Eli Christensen drilled a ground-rule double to right-center to score pinch runner Matt Roquemore to tie the game at 4. Hee followed with a ground single to left to score Christensen with the go-ahead run.

"It was Vinnie who put the wind back in our sails with that double," Trapasso said.

Catricala was 2 for 3 with a walk, and scored one run in UH's second inning on Nate Young's sacrifice fly.

"It's always good to get an inning going and watching your teammates back you up and follow through," Catricala said.

Keroher (3-2) was charged with two runs in two-thirds of an inning. Davis should know how he feels. Although he was not involved in the decision in Saturday's loss, Davis was roughed up and would have suffered his first loss of the season yesterday had UH not rallied.

"We've had some late-inning stumbles lately and our offense has done a great job of getting us back in the game," said Davis, who allowed a run in 2 2/3 innings.

But with the lead in hand in the ninth, Davis made a nice stop and recovery of a comebacker to throw out Shaun Kort. He then got pinch-hitter Kaup to fly out to right and Suleski to pop out to second to end the game.

"It was more of a mental thing," Davis said. "That's when I had to bear down. There was no way they were going to win that game in the ninth."

Neither starter figured in the decision. Hawai'i's Josh Schneider gave up three runs (one earned) in 4 1/3 innings. Daly added two scoreless innings.

Nevada's Howe lasted just 1 1/3 innings, giving up three runs, squandering a 2-0 first-inning lead.

The Rainbows started Young at shortstop, but he was replaced by Christensen to start the third. Trapasso felt Young should have made three plays, two in Nevada's two-run first. He said Young should have handled first baseman Kris Sanchez's throw on a force at second that went as a throwing error. Later, with runners at the corners, Nevada executed a double steal. Trapasso said if Young's throw home wasn't wide, the runner would have been out by 5 feet.

In the second inning, David Ciarlo was credited with an infield single on a grounder that Young got in front of but went through his glove.

Trapasso said it was just one of those days for Young.

"I have all the faith in the world in Nate ... I'm happy he got a big sac fly in that first inning before he was pulled."

Christensen was 2 for 3 and made several big plays defensively by starting a double play when Davis entered the game and completed a relay to nail a runner at the plate in fourth inning.

Every game was close in the series with each going down to the wire.

"It was a very good series for fans to watch, but I don't know if I want to go through one of those for a while," Trapasso said.

Next up for UH is San Jose State starting Friday.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.