Long Beach state collected 10 hits, but it was a walk that might have made the difference in its 4-2 win against Hawai'i last night.

The Dirtbags (8-2), ranked 10th by Baseball America, made a three-run first inning stand up behind the strong pitching of Vance Worley to clinch the non-conference three-game series that concludes at 1:05 p.m. today.

The Rainbows (5-8) engaged in a pitchers' duel for the second consecutive night before a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,521, the largest turnout of the season.

Worley (2-0) had a career-high 11 strikeouts, allowing two runs and six hits, while walking none in eight innings. Nick Vincent allowed a walk in a scoreless ninth for his first save.

"That's about as good an effort as we'll see against us," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "If there's anybody better than he was tonight that we'll face this year, it's going to be a guy that's going in the top 10 picks because he was that good. He really had us overmatched."

Worley's batterymate, Mid-Pacific alumnus Kip Masuda, had the best seat in the house to witness the performance.

"He was in a zone," said Masuda, who was 1 for 4. "Everything was pretty much strikes. He was spotting his fastball in and out and that pretty much set the tone. He really dominated the plate today."

Overshadowed by it all was Nick Rhodes' first start of the season. The senior left-hander tossed the team's first complete game of the season, as well as the first of his career. But a three-run first did him in. He served up a home run to leadoff batter Robert Burk to start the game. He got the next two outs and started 0-2 on Shane Peterson, who drew a walk. Rhodes then hit Taylor Krick. Devin Lohman then flared a triple to right to make it 3-0.

"The walk, that's something I need to eliminate," said Rhodes (0-1). "When you go 0-2 on a guy and walk him, especially with two outs that's going to hurt you. I have to eliminate those freebies."

Added Trapasso: "The solo home run to start the game, I didn't really think about that because solo home runs aren't going to beat you. It's the walk and hit batsman and then the flare triple and all of a sudden there's a three spot and now you're in trouble. You might see that from a freshman; a senior's got to know that. But it was his first start of the year and he's amped up. That was the story of the game, that first inning. But I couldn't be more proud of the way he battled and kept us in the game. He allowed us to hang around, kept us in striking distance and obviously, we found something tonight, so that was a huge positive for us."

What it does is give Trapasso some options for today's starter, which he had not decided on last night. Matt Daly, who threw 61 pitches in relief on Friday, was originally slated to start today.

After the first, Rhodes pretty much settled down, allowing a run in the third that made it 4-0. He ended up striking out a career-high nine.

Dirtbags' coach Mike Weathers said his batters didn't capitalize on other opportunities to increase the lead, but credited Rhodes' effort.

"We had a couple innings we could've started something, but I was disappointed we let him off the hook," Weathers said. "But you know what? He did a good job. He didn't let us do anything. I thought we did a poor job of trying to attack him. He came back and changed his attack. I thought he did a nice job."

Rhodes said from the fifth inning on, he was able to hit his spots consistently.

Jon Hee drove in both of UH's runs.

In the bottom of the fourth, Greg Garcia singled and stole second. Hee went 2-2 and fouled off five consecutive pitches before singling to left to drive in Garcia to pull UH to 4-1.

In the eighth, Kevin Macdonald beat out a single to second, tweaking his heel along the way and was pulled for pinch runner Ryan Morford. Ryan Asato, making his first start of the season after getting a pinch-hit single Friday night, singled to center to put runners at first and second. Garcia fouled out to Masuda on a bunt pop up, but Hee delivered an RBI single to left-center to make it 4-2. But Worley fought back retiring Sean Montplaisir on foul pop to third and striking out Brandon Haislet to end the threat.

Trapasso said Macdonald's heel has been an ongoing issue and that his status is day-to-day.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.