The Hawai'i Rainbows took the late starting date to heart, waking up in time to beat UH-Hilo, 5-4, last night in 11 innings.

Derek DuPree's ground single off second baseman Michael Higa with two outs in the bottom of the 11th scored Kevin Fujii with the winning run before 1,380 at Les Murakami Stadium.

Although the teams officially opened the NCAA Division I season a week earlier than the rest of the nation, it was still their latest starting date in years because of the new uniform starting date of Feb. 22. The UH teams had an exemption to start a week earlier.

The Rainbows (1-0) overcame a 3-1 deficit with single runs in the bottom of the eighth and bottom of the ninth to send the game to extras, only to watch the relentless Vulcans (0-1) take a 4-3 lead in the 10th. But Manoa tied it in the bottom of the 10th and won in the 11th.

"The way we played the last three innings makes you feel your team showed some toughness and overcame some adversity," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "But the reality is we put ourselves in bad situations by playing so bad for seven inning. The bottom line is we were lucky to win. We're happy we won because that's the bottom line. But we were fortunate to win."

The Vulcans were aggressive early while holding off the Rainbows. A one-out RBI single by Keoni Manago gave the Vulcans a 1-0 lead in the second, but the inning ended with the Rainbows nailing a runner going to third and the batter caught between first and second.

In the third, they had another runner thrown out at third after a two-out infield single by Higa. In the eighth, A.J. Satele was caught between first and second after singling in a run that increased the Vulcans' lead to 3-1.

"That's my fault," Vulcans coach Joey Estrella said. "We wanted to be aggressive. This is no excuse by no stretch of the imagination, but we were hoping the last few weeks to put a lot of things in while scrimmaging and putting in a lot of those things in. The rain just thwarted that. Those are things we would've done in scrimmages and we would've corrected that. But I take the blame for that because we wanted to be aggressive."

For the Rainbows, who extended their win streak against the Vulcans to 14 in a row, it was Domo (turf) arigato. Fujii, who came in to pinch run and scored the tying run in the bottom of the ninth, opened the 11th with a bunt single up the third baseline against UHH pitcher Christian Stephenson.

"It helps a lot because this is way slower than the regular turf we've had," Fujii said. "So you just gotta work with what you got."

Fujii took second on Nate Young's sacrifice and Matt Roquemore was intentionally walked. The runners advanced when Jon Hee grounded out to the hole at second. On a 2-0 pitch, DuPree hit a grounder to the left of Higa, who dived for the ball that went off his glove, allowing Fujii to score the winning run.

"It just got by me," said Higa, his face and neck dotted with the rubber granules in the turf. "The ball had eyes."

Stephenson (0-1) gave up the run and two hits and a walk in 1 2/3 innings for the Vulcans, while Josh Schneider (1-0) pitched a perfect 11th, striking out two, as UH's fourth pitcher of the game.

Matt Daly started for the Rainbows, walking four of the first nine batters he faced. He still managed to go six innings, allowing two runs and four hits with seven strikeouts. But he left trailing 2-1, giving up a two-out, solo home run to right by Higa in the top of the sixth.

"Was a dream come true," said Higa, a Pearl City High graduate, of the homer.

Nicholas Rhodes gave up a run in 1 1/3 innings and Jayson Kramer also allowed a run in 2 2/3 innings for the Rainbows.

A throwing error by Higa helped the Rainbows tie the game in the bottom of the third when a run scored on a wild pitch. After Higa's homer put UHH ahead, the Vulcans added a run in the eighth on an RBI single by Satele.

The Rainbows chipped away beginning in the eighth. With one out, Brandon Haislet was hit by a pitch and scored on Kevin Macdonald's double to right-center off Dustin Gilmore to pull the Rainbows to 3-2.

An error by Satele, who could not hold on to a throw from shortstop, allowed Landon Hernandez to reach first safely to lead off the ninth. Pinch runner Fujii took second on Young's sacrifice and scored the tying run on pinch hitter Shane Hoey's single to right.

The Vulans regained the lead in the top of the 10th on three singles to shortstop. With runners at the corners and the infield drawn in, Higa hit a grounder off shortstop Young's glove for an RBI single to make it 4-3.

But the Rainbows tied it in the bottom of the 10th when Haislet led off with a single, stole second and took third on a wild throw by the catcher. Macdonald grounded out to short against a drawn-in infield, holding Haislet, who easily scored on Jeff Van Doornum's sacrifice fly to deep center.

The series resumes at 1:05 p.m. today.

NOTE

A moment of silence was held before the start of last night's game for UH-Hilo outfielder Jesse Yamashita, who passed away Sunday.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.