It's becoming a recurring theme for the Hawai'i baseball team.

The Rainbows jumped on Nevada early, only to get blanked the remaining eight innings in a 5-3 loss yesterday at Peccole Park in Reno, Nev., dropping a second straight game in the Western Athletic Conference series.

"It's a joke the way we played tonight," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We've seen this act all year. No toughness, no killer instinct, no willingness to make adjustments. It all centers on toughness. It was a total embarrassment to get three in the first and get shut out the rest of the game."

After Shaun Kort's RBI double tied the game at 3 in the sixth, Baker Krukow's sacrifice fly put Nevada ahead, 4-3. Terry Walsh's solo home run to center was insurance to protect Nevada starter Rod Scurry's outing, which started off with a shaky first inning when he gave up three runs on five consecutive hits. Scurry (3-5), the son of the retired major league pitcher of the same name, went 6 1/3 innings, scattering three hits after the first, while walking none and striking out seven. Jarad Mitchell added the finishing touch with 2 2/3 scoreless frames of relief for his first save.

The Rainbows (31-20 overall, 9-11 WAC) were looking for some momentum in preparation for the conference tournament when they return to Reno May 24. Trapasso was looking for some well-played baseball from his team, which is a loss away from not finishing with a winning record in conference play.

Meanwhile, the Wolf Pack (30-22, 13-7) are playing like a team with the mindset of dethroning defending champion and first-place Fresno State (16-5).

Nevada chipped away at its 3-0 deficit in the fourth against UH starter Matt Daly. Konrad Schmidt doubled with one out, took third on a ground out to first and scored when Walsh tripled off the right-field wall. Walsh also scored on a close play at the plate in which second baseman Jon Hee was charged with a throwing error on the relay from the outfield.

Trapasso came out to argue the call, feeling that Walsh was out. Trapasso ended up getting ejected. The call fueled the frustration because Trapasso could sense the momentum shift of the game.

"When things are going bad you can see the pattern we've fallen into because we've done it all year where we get a lead and go into cruise control," Trapasso said. "You could just see that coming, so you knew every run they scored was going to chip away because we weren't going to score much more the way we were going out there just clocking in with our at-bats. But it was a horrible call. Danny Payne's a good umpire, but it was a horrible call."

The Wolf Pack completed the comeback in the sixth. Jason Rodriguez led off with a walk by Daly and scored on Kort's double to center. After taking third on a ground out, Kort scored on Krukow's sacrifice fly. Walsh then delivered his fifth home run of the season to make it 5-3.

Daly (5-2), coming off his one-hitter against UH-Hilo last weekend, was charged with five runs (four earned), four hits and two walks, while striking out five. Jayson Kramer added two scoreless frames, but to no avail, since the offense could not generate anything against Scurry and Mitchell after the first inning.

At the outset, it appeared the Rainbows had brushed off Saturday's loss by scoring early off Scurry. With one out, Derek DuPree singled and scored on Justin Frash's double to right-center. Brandon Haislet followed with an RBI-single to make it 2-0. After taking second on a passed ball, Haislet went to third on Kris Sanchez's single. But on the play, Sanchez was caught trying to return to first after making the turn off the bag. Although Vinnie Catricala brought home Haislet with a single to make it 3-0, the inning ended when Kevin Macdonald bounced out to the pitcher.

Sanchez wasn't the only runner caught off base. In the six, Haislet doubled, but later in the inning was caught in a rundown between second and third on Catricala's fielder's choice grounder to the pitcher.

The Rainbows' next best scoring chance came in the seventh when Scurry allowed a single to Eli Christensen and then hit Hee with a pitch with one out. Mitchell came in and his first offering was a wild pitch to advance the runners to scoring position. But Mitchell struck out pinch hitter Jorge Franco and got Frash to ground out to strand the runners.

A frustrated Trapasso said he has exhausted all personnel moves, so lineup changes are limited.

"If we had tougher guys, we'd put them in," he said. "If we don't, we have to go with what we got (and) hope something happens."

The series concludes at 3 p.m. today, Hawai'i time. Hawai'i is trying to avoid a sweep, which hasn't happened since last year when Louisiana Tech took two at UH in a series that lost the third game because of rain. The last time UH was swept in a three-game WAC series was in 2005 at Fresno State. New graduate Mark Rodrigues will pitch for UH today.