What started to look like a walk in the park quickly turned into a battle as Hawai'i squeaked past Western Illinois, 3-2, last night in the first of a five-game nonconference series.

Junior right-hander Steven Wright (4-1) notched his second complete game of the season, allowing two runs, six hits and a walk with a career-high 13 strikeouts for the Rainbows (14-6) before 1,137 at Les Murakami Stadium.

Western Illinois (2-10), which has yet to play a home game because of renovations being done at its park, has dropped 10 in a row. Last night, the Leathernecks, picked to finish second in the Mid-Continent Conference, came up a bit short because of Wright's pitching. Despite the loss, they definitely sent a message to the Rainbows, who enjoyed a national ranking for a week two weeks ago.

"We were sweating this out," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "I was very impressed with Western Illinois. As good as Steven pitched, they had some hitters who were getting some pretty good swings. I was impressed with the way they played defense. They came to play and they've played a tremendous schedule. They're better than advertised from what we're told. We got ourselves a dogfight the next four games."

The Rainbows jumped on Leathernecks' starter Wyatt Luebber (0-2) early, tagging him for three runs in two innings. After Robbie Wilder led off with a hit batsman and took second on Derek DuPree's sacrifice, Justin Frash and Luis Avila hit back-to-back doubles to give UH a 2-0 lead.

The Leathernecks scored in the second when Travis Check tripled to right with one out, and was brought home on Tyler Johnson's sacrifice fly to center.

The Rainbows got the run back in the bottom of the second on DuPree's RBI single after two-out walks to Joe Spiers and Wilder.

WIU switched to left-hander Quinn Leath, who pitched two-hit ball over the next 4 1/3 innings to settle the game.

"He's got a little funk to him," Trapasso said of Leath. "He was throwing enough strikes and had some life to his pitches that we couldn't figure out. I give him all the credit because out of the gate, it looked like we were gonna have an easy night, but it ended up being a dogfight."

The Leathernecks pulled to 3-2 in the seventh. Check singled with one out and stole second. After Johnson struck out, Check scored on a ground single off second baseman Jon Hee's glove.

The Rainbows had a chance to score in the seventh against Leath, when Kris Sanchez walked to start the inning and took third on Esteban Lopez's double. But Spiers struck out and Leath was pulled for Aaron Madill. With a 2-1 count, UH put the squeeze on but Madill's pitch was away from the left-handed hitting Wilder, who was unable to make contact, making Sanchez an easy out at the plate, as Lopez took third. Wilder walked, but DuPree grounded out to second to end the inning.

"It was a tough pitch to squeeze on and it was just tough luck," Trapasso said.

Wright's performance ultimately made the difference. A complete game was crucial because there are four more games in the series, including a doubleheader today. His pitch count was relatively low at 117 considering the high number of strikeouts.

"The past week our bullpen threw a lot, especially with the doubleheaders in the (Rainbow) tournament, and we have five games this weekend, so I figure if I can finish the game off, I can give 'em a little rest so they can go out and get the next four games," Wright said.

Except for a couple of hits, Wright pretty much had his way. Most of the fouled-off pitches were back, and even some of the pop outs were not hit high.

"Most of all, he was locating his fastball on the inner half and outer half, so he could establish what he wanted to throw," said batterymate Lopez.

Wright said pitching coach Chad Konishi called a good game.

"It didn't look like they were comfortable," Wright said. "Coach K and Esteban worked it in and out today, so (WIU) didn't know what was coming, so they didn't get any good swings."

Wright said the career high in strikeouts just happened.

"If you throw your pitches and keep 'em down, the strikeouts come," he said. "If you try for strikeouts, you won't get 'em."

Today's doubleheader starts at 1 p.m. The first game is scheduled for nine innings with the second set for seven. The second game will start about 30 to 40 minutes after the end of the first game.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.