No. 26 Mississippi State out-pitched and out-executed Hawai'i to take the series opener, 3-1, last night.

Three Bulldogs pitchers collaborated on a four-hitter to hand the Rainbows (3-6) their third consecutive loss before 999 at Les Murakami Stadium.

Left-hander Tyler Whitney (1-0) allowed a run on three hits and a walk with five strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings for the Bulldogs (8-1). He got help from Greg Houston with 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Chad Crosswhite finished off the Rainbows with a scoreless inning for his third save.

Hawai'i starter Jayson Kramer (1-2) had his best outing, going eight innings, allowing two runs, six hits and two walks with two strikeoiuts. Harrison Kuroda gave up a run in one inning.

"Our kids competed," MSU coach John Cohen said. "We bring in Crosswhite and he gets us the double play ball. It's a big win for us, to travel that far and to play a quality Hawai'i team. I'm excited for our guys."

It was another frustrating loss for the Rainbows, who had the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth with one out, only to have the game end on a double play. Where the Bulldogs executed, the Rainbows couldn't.

"I don't know if it was their pitching or our approach," UH coach Mike Trapasso said.

In the bottom of the ninth against Houston, Greg Garcia led off with a walk and took second on Vinnie Catricala's ground single to right. Cohen lifted Houston for Crosswhite to face Jeffrey Van Doornum. But Van Doornum failed on a sacrifice attempt, striking out missing a bunt attempt. Although Kevin Macdonald walked to load the bases, the game ended when Christian Johnson grounded to third for an around-the-horn double play.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs were able to move their runners when it mattered. In the top of the ninth against Kuroda, Connor Powers led off with a single and Russ Sneed walked. Both advanced on pinch hitter Cody Freeman's sacrifice. After an intentional walk to load the bases, Powers scored an insurance run on Scott DeLoach's sacrifice fly to center.

Going back to the seventh and trailing 1-0, the Bulldogs hitters figured a way to counter Kramer's sinkers. Connor Powers led off with an infield single. After Sneed was robbed of a hit on a diving catch by right fielder Johnson, Jet Butler was hit by a pitch. Pinch hitter Ryan Duffy went the opposite way with an RBI single to right to tie the game at 1, as Butler took third. DeLoach did the same to score Freeman to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead before Ryan Powers grounded into a double play to end the inning.

"Their guy did such a great job of sinking over and over again," Cohen said. "Our guys made a decision in that inning to work and meet the sink and use the middle of the field. If you hit anything to the (left) side it's just dead, so we feel we have to get to the middle or the right side of the field and in that one inning we did a good job of that."

For the Rainbows, generating offense has been an issue. They entered the game hitting .231, averaging a little over four runs per game.

Whitney didn't give them many chances either. Kolten Wong led off the bottom of the first with a booming drive to center, but was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple. Whitey retired 13 batters in a row before giving up a one-out walk to Macdonald in the fifth, when he struck out the side. But Shane Hoey led off the sixth with a home run to center, the first of his career. Two outs later, Garcia doubled, but was left there when Catricala was robbed of a hit on a nice stop of a grounder up the middle by second baseman Frank Rawdow.

The series continues at 6:35 tonight. Nate Klein will pitch for UH with MSU sending out another left-hander in Nick Routt (2-0).