It was a continuing tale of teams heading in opposite directions.

Kevin Macdonald's three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh rallied Hawai'i past snake-bit Loyola Marymount, 9-5, last night in front of 2,161 at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Rainbows (9-6), winners of six in a row, clinched their second series in as many weekends, in going 3-0 in the four-game series. The Lions (8-10) have lost eight in a row.

"It feels good," UH catcher Landon Hernandez said of the team's recent success. "It's always good when you have different people stepping up in different games and have other people backing you up. We have a good pitching staff right now that's unbelievable."

Macdonald went 2 for 5 with four RBIs, including an RBI double that tied the game at 3 in the fifth. Kolten Wong went 2 for 3 with three runs. Hernandez hit his first homer of the season that put UH ahead, 1-0, in the second inning. Matt Roquemore and freshman Easton Torigoe, making his starting debut at DH, each had two hits.

"I didn't think we had a lot of focus early," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We're still playing hard, but we didn't execute well early. The guys are resilient. They played hard, but I want them to come out tomorrow a little bit more focused early."

Just as the Rainbows are hot, the Lions are cold.

"We're going through a tough streak of games," LMU first-year coach Jason Gill said. "We've lost eight straight and all were close games, except for one. I'm pretty frustrated."

Gill's frustration was evident when he was ejected in the eighth inning after two UH runners scored on a wild pitch. Gill came out to argue the second runner in a close play at the plate.

Harrison Kuroda (3-0) pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, allowing a hit with two strikeouts. He entered the game trailing, 5-4, and was the beneficiary of Macdonald's homer off Jason Wheeler (0-2), who was charged with four runs in 1 1/3 innings.

"It was a changeup," Macdonald said of his homer on an 0-1 count. "I just missed the first one. The first pitch was fastball. I had a pretty good hack on it, but I missed it (and hit it foul). I wasn't sitting off-speed. I was just trying to see the ball and hit it hard."

Hawai'i starter Jared Alexander, still on a limited pitch count in his third start of the season, went a season-high five innings, allowing three runs, all unearned, four hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He threw 72 pitches with a ceiling set at 75, as he is being brought along slowly from elbow tenderness from last season. Although an error by second baseman Shane Hoey made the runs unearned, Alexander did hurt himself with his first two walks this season. He still hasn't allowed an earned run in 13 innings.

Ryan Davis picked up for him in the sixth and was rolling along until a two-out single in the seventh. Once pitching from the stretch, Davis had trouble keeping his pitches down, as he walked the next batter and gave up two RBI singles that gave LMU a 5-3 lead.

The Rainbows took a 2-0 lead in the second. Hernandez led off with a home run to left. Roquemore then singled with one out, stole second and an out later, scored on Sean Montplaisir's single.

The Lions took the lead in the three-run fourth, when Alexander allowed the two walks. T.J. Bernardy's sacrifice fly should've been the third out and Ryan Hawthorne's two-run single put LMU ahead, 3-2.

Macdonald's double in the fifth scored Wong to tie the score at 3.

After the Lions went ahead in the seventh, Macdonald's homer put them behind again. The Rainbows then added three in the eighth to seal it. The first two runs scored on a wild pitch from Jeremy Burrell and the third on a single by Hernandez.

The Rainbows will try for a series sweep at 1:05 p.m. today. Matt Sisto will start for UH against LMU's Ramiro Carreon in a battle of freshman right-handers.