Seedings-wise, it was meaningless. But to the University of Hawai'i baseball team, it might be the boost it needs entering this week's Western Athletic Conference tournament.

Justin Frash's deflected single off first baseman Alan Ahmady's glove scored a hustling Jon Hee from second base with two outs in the bottom of the eighth as the Rainbows beat Fresno State, 1-0, last night before 1,603 at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Rainbows finish the regular season at 33-23 overall and 11-13 in the WAC, while the Bulldogs dropped to 32-27 and 17-7.

"It gives us momentum going into the WAC tournament," Frash said. "We're hot right now. Hopefully, we can stay hot."

Frash's game-winning hit preserved a tremendous pitching effort by starter Nicholas Rhodes, who pitched six-plus scoreless innings, scattering five hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Tyler Davis (6-2) added three innings of relief to give the Rainbows the series, 2-1. It was the first time UH took a series from FSU since 2003.

"Tonight I felt everything was working," said Rhodes, whose last start was April 29 at Arizona State when he lasted just one-third of an inning and gave up four runs. "I could throw my fastball; my curveball was really effective. I just felt confident out there."

The pitching had to be superb to hold off the Bulldogs, the regular season champion and the top seed for the six-team tournament. The Bulldogs had a golden opportunity in the fourth when a single and two-base error put runners at second and third with no outs. But Rhodes got Tommy Mendonca to foul out to third and then struck out Ahmady for the crucial second out. Ryan Overland grounded out to second to end the inning.

"We were mixing curveball and changeup," Rhodes explained about striking out Ahmady. "We went curveball. I went with Coach K (Chad Konishi) on that one."

The Rainbows also had a chance to score in the bottom of that inning, when Frash led off with a triple, but was eventually thrown out at the plate on a fielder's choice grounder to third for the second out of the inning.

Meanwhile, FSU starter Holden Sprague, making his first start of the season, went 5 2/3 scoreless innings, scattering three hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

But the Rainbows got to Brandon Miller (1-3) in the eighth. After Miller got the first two outs, Hee singled to left. Landon Hernandez came in to pinch hit for Jorge Franco and the Bulldogs countered by bringing in closer Jason Breckley, who walked Hernandez. Then, on a full count, Frash hit a hard bounder to first that went off Ahmady's glove toward second baseman Erik Wetzel, who made a nice effort to get the carom and fired to the plate, but Hee beat the throw as he dived for the plate.

"We battled this whole series," Frash said. "That's the kind of team we are. We're going to do well in the WAC tournament."

It was a sort of redemption finish for Davis, who allowed a two-run single that gave FSU the series opener, 7-5, in 10 innings Saturday. Davis gave up a lead-off single to Mendonca to start the ninth, but Hernandez gunned him down trying to steal. Davis then struck out Ahmady and retired Dan Grubb on a foul fly to left on a nice running catch by Matt Roquemore to end the game.

"It was a really important game for us," Davis said. "It doesn't help us in the standings, but it gives us momentum going up to the tournament by winning the series against the best team in the conference."

It was the first 1-0 UH win since April 29, 2004 when it beat Nevada on a combined effort by Ricky Bauer and Guy McDowell.

The Rainbows leave this afternoon for Reno, Nev., the site of the WAC tournament. They will open against host and second-seeded Nevada on Thursday at 4 p.m., Hawai'i time.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.