It took four starts, a couple relief appearances since his previous start, and the help of a veteran for University of Hawai'i freshman Alex Capaul to get his first collegiate victory.

Capaul and senior Josh Schneider combined on a four-hitter as UH beat San Jose State, 6-2, yesterday to take three of the four-game Western Athletic Conference series at Municipal Stadium in San Jose, Calif.

The Rainbows (13-20 overall, 5-7 WAC) pulled into fourth place in the conference, a half-game ahead of the Spartans (15-13, 6-9) and a game behind third-place New Mexico State (14-16, 4-4), UH's next opponent starting Thursday at Les Murakami Stadium. Hawai'i is 3 1/2 games behind conference leader Sacramento State (13-15, 8-3).

By taking their first WAC series of the season, the Rainbows finished 4-5 on their road trip after starting it by getting swept at Sacramento State. But since the second half of their season, when they won at No. 13 Stanford Tuesday, UH has won four of its past five.

Capaul (1-3), making his first start since March 1 against nationally ranked Michigan in an 11-5 loss, went five innings, allowing two runs and two singles, while walking five and striking out three. He labored in the second inning when a single and three consecutive walks led to a run. His fifth walk of the game with two outs in the fifth was eventually cashed in for a run.

Schneider allowed two hits and two walks with one strikeout in four scoreless innings for his first save. It wasn't just a save statistically. He also gave an already depleted bullpen a much-needed rest.

"I don't think there's any doubt that Schneider came up big for us," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "Capaul, after the first inning, struggled with command. He just kind of gutted his way through five innings to get us to Schneider. I can't say enough about Schneider because he's had his struggles, but when we needed him most, he came up big for us."

Hawai'i's main relief pitchers, Jayson Kramer and Matt Daly, were ruled out the rest of the series after their long outings in Friday's 15-inning game. They did get up to toss a few in the bullpen, but were only going to be used to face one or two batters, Trapasso said.

Hawai'i got the jump on SJSU in the second inning against Scott Sobczak (2-1), who lasted just 2 2/3 innings, allowing three runs. Greg Garcia and Landon Hernandez each had RBI singles to give UH a 2-0 lead.

But after a perfect first inning, Capaul struggled in the second, allowing a run that made it 2-1.

Hawai'i knocked out Sobczak in the third with a two-out, RBI single by Kevin Macdonald. The Rainbows boosted their lead to 4-1 in the fourth on the first of two RBI singles by Derek DuPree, who led UH's 13-hit attack by batting 3 for 5.

The Spartans closed to 4-2 in the fifth on Corey Valine's RBI single, but the Rainbows got another run in the sixth on DuPree's second RBI single and another in the ninth on an error. In those two cases, the UH runners — Vinnie Catricala in the sixth and Brandon Haislet in the ninth — each stole second and eventually scored. The Rainbows were active on the bases paths with five steal attempts, succeeding three times. Haislet had two steals.

"Any time the pitchers might be slow to the plate (during his delivery) or (the situation) just presented itself to be able to get something started, we were able to do that," Trapasso said.

NOTE

Former Rainbow shortstop Brian Finegan, who was released by the Cleveland Indians during spring training, signed as a minor league free agent with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was assigned yesterday to the Double-A Altoona Curve of the Eastern League, according to the Altoona Web site.