In all the hoopla of yesterday's power surge, something more important was brewing for the Hawai'i baseball team.

After three rough outings, Jared Alexander pitched six solid innings to help the Rainbows beat Sacramento State, 8-4, and take the Western Athletic Conference series, 3-1.

A crowd of 2,164 at Les Murakami Stadium watched the Rainbows (24-13 overall, 7-4 WAC) move into a tie for the conference lead with Nevada (7-4), which beat New Mexico State (7-5), 8-7, yesterday to split that series.

"We're not going to be able to do what we want to do without Jared pitching the way he is capable of," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "It wasn't the Jared of last year, but it was a huge step in the right direction."

Alexander (1-1) picked up his first win of the season by allowing two runs, four hits and a walk, while striking out one. He had been brought along slowly earlier this season after he missed the end of last season with a tender elbow. He was 7-3 with a 3.27 earned run average and had won his last four starts last year.

Alexander had been roughed up for 14 runs in his last 7 2/3 innings from his previous three starts. He gave up four runs in one inning against Nevada in a game that was suspended after the top of the second inning. He did return the following day with two-plus innings of relief. While the first two innings were scoreless, he could not get an out, allowing five runs in the process, going into the third inning. But it was on that trip that Alexander learned he had gotten away from what made him successful last year from, of all people, Nevada coach Gary Powers.

"Coach Powers from Reno actually pointed it out," Alexander said. "I was little more over the top. We dropped my arm angle my last outing against Reno. It helped the first two innings, but today it helped it out a lot."

Trapasso said getting Alexander back to last year is still a work in progress. Alexander had some lapses, such as when he gave up a second-inning lead-off double to Blake Crosby (eventually thrown out at third trying to advance on a pitch in the dirt) and when he gave up a walk and single in succession in the third before making the appropriate corrections to get two pop outs to short to escape the inning unscathed.

"He really started falling into his old pattern from the second, third inning," Trapasso said. "He started nibbling again, wouldn't throw his off-speed for strikes. He was trying to throw for the swings and misses. You can't pitch that way. The difference today was he was able to get by with the coming-in fastball when he was behind and they were popping some balls up and spurred a couple situations where in the past he got hurt. He has to understand you have to pitch to contact, pitch with confidence with your off-speed stuff or you're not going to be able to win."

Trapasso said Alexander adjusting to form is a good sign, but still a work in progress.

"It wasn't a last-year performance, but it was a lot closer than what we've seen all year," Trapasso said. "Hopefully it's something he can build on."

Alexander used 90 pitches, his highest single-outing total this season.

Josh Slaats added two scoreless innings. After the Rainbows added three in the eighth, Lenny Linsky came in to finish the ninth, but not before giving up a two-run home run to Tim Wheeler, his second two-run homer of the game.

But it was the Rainbows who flexed their muscles first. Kevin Macdonald's first-inning, two-run home run to left off starter Tommy Elrod set the tone. Vinnie Catricala and Macdonald went deep back-to-back for their sixth and eighth homers of the season, respectively. Both were also off Elrod (4-2), who lasted just three innings for the Hornets (21-17, 2-6).

"It was just one of those days," Macdonald said of his first multiple-homer game. "I got lucky a few times. I'm just happy we came out with the series (win). After we lost that first game Saturday, we knew we had to battle back the next two."

Macdonald's homers pull him into a tie for the team lead with Kolten Wong, who just missed one of his own in the seventh. His drive to right hit the wall post and ricocheted back into the field for a double. (Although the post holds up the wall from behind it, it is considered part of the wall, according to the ground rules.)

Catricala and Macdonald were hit by pitches in succession by reliever Nick Buchta in the fifth. They were not considered brushbacks, as no warnings were issued and no animosity was displayed.

Macdonald later flied out to deep right in the seventh.

"You never try for a home run out here," Macdonald said about trying for the trifecta. "If you do, you don't get it. Wongy hit three this year. I had it in the back of my mind, but it doesn't happen when you try."

Wong had a three-homer game March 16 vs. Loyola Marymount.

The Rainbows hit seven home runs in this series, bringing their season total to 36, the most in Trapasso's eight seasons.

"We've got some guys in the program for two, three years in the weight room working hard with (strength coach) Tommy Heffernan," Trapasso said of juniors Macdonald and Catricala. "Kolten came in with that kind of bat speed."

Catricala entered the season with seven career homers, while Macdonald had just one in each of his first two seasons.

While the power will come in handy for this week's road games at No. 4 Arizona State tomorrow and at New Mexico State over the weekend, Trapasso said he still wants to see more consistency from the offense.

"It's going to help us on the road," Trapasso said of the power hitting. "But we need the rest of the (batting) order to catch up to the three, four and five (hitters). Not from a power standpoint, but a consistency standpoint."

The Rainbows departed last night for Arizona. The Sun Devils (28-8) just swept a three-game Pac-10 series from Stanford.

NOTE: ESPN 1420 AM will carry the local broadcasts of the ASU game, as well as Friday's and Sunday's single games at NMSU. But Saturday's doubleheader will not be aired because NMSU is not broadcasting those games either, according to ESPN 1420 AM play-by-play announcer Don Robbs, who won't be making the trip.