After a seemingly auspicious start, Hawai'i turned for the worse as New Mexico State rallied from a five-run, first-inning deficit for a 7-5 win yesterday in the opener of a four-game Western Athletic Conference baseball series at Presley Askew Field in Las Cruces, N.M.

Franky Busani's two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning snapped a 5-all tie to complete the rally for the Aggies (25-27 overall, 12-13 WAC).

"It was a really disappointing game," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We score five in the first then we just go into cruise control in all phases of the game."

The Rainbows (24-26, 16-13), right in the thick of the regular season title race, dropped to 2 1/2 games behind WAC leader Fresno State and 1 1/2 behind second-place Nevada. Both teams were idle yesterday. The same could be said of 'Bows after their five-run first inning.

"This team has been through way too much to get comfortable," Trapasso said.

With the score 5-5, Sam Spangler allowed a lead-off walk to Tyler Hardt, who was caught stealing second. But Marcus Quade reached on first baseman Kevin Macdonald's throwing error to Spangler covering first after a grounder. Quade stole second when Joe Leghorn struck out for the second out of the inning. Busani then drilled a 1-0 pitch to right-center for NMSU's third home run of the game that gave the Aggies their first lead of the game.

Spangler (0-3) went 3 1/3 innings of relief, charged with two unearned runs, one hit and three walks with six strikeouts.

Tyler Sturdevant (6-5) overcame the five-run first by following with seven scoreless innings. He allowed 11 hits and two walks with six strikeouts. The Rainbows threatened in the second with two runners on and one out and again in the seventh when they had the bases loaded and one out and failed to score.

"I give all the credit in the world to Sturdevant because he sensed that (we went into cruise control) ... put up a couple zeros when he was almost out of the game in the third inning," Trapasso said. "He ends up going about 140 pitches and shuts us down and deserved to win the way he battled."

Erik Nyquist survived an error, a single by Jon Hee and a wild pitch that put the tying run on second with one out in the ninth by striking out Brandon Haislet and Jeff Van Doornum to notch his sixth save.

The Rainbows batted once through the order in the first when they got a two-run double from Haislet and three-run triple from Ryan Asato to take a 5-0 lead off Sturdevant.

But the Aggies, the leaders in home runs in the WAC, got a two-out, three-run homer by Leghorn off UH starter Alex Bates in the fourth to pull to 5-3. They tied it in the fifth on Joseph Scaperotta's two-run home run off Cory Kahn. It was Scaperotta's league-leading 19th homer of the season.

The series resumes today at 2 p.m., HST. Nick Rhodes will start for UH today. Spangler, who used 66 pitches, would not be available today and is questionable even for tomorrow's twin bill.