Hawaii baseball team beats Rutgers in series opener

Matt Wong tied the game with an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning and Hawaii scored two more runs on a passed ball and an error to win the opener of a four-game series against Rutgers 11-10 tonight at Les Murakami Stadium.

Wong finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs and Jordan Donahue had a season-high three hits, scored three times and drove in two runs to lead Hawaii (5-8), which trailed 9-7 going to the bottom of the eighth inning.

UH improved to 5-0 when it scores at least five runs and more than doubled its entire offensive output in a four-game series loss to Vanderbilt last weekend.

Tai Atkins (1-1) pitched 2 1/3 innings of relief with four strikeouts, but gave up a two-out RBI single to Danny DiGeorgio in the top of the ninth to make it 11-10 with the tying run at second.

Junior right-hander Dalton Renne, the sixth UH pitcher used in the game, entered in relief and got Ryan Lasko to fly out to right-center to earn his first save of the season.

>> PHOTOS: Hawaii vs. Rutgers

It was a struggle for the UH bullpen after starter Andy Archer exited with a 7-1 lead to start the top of the fifth.

Archer allowed an unearned run on three hits and had six strikeouts without a walk, but was pulled after a season-low 73 pitches.

UH’s five relievers combined to give up nine runs on 10 hits in five innings with five walks and two hit batters.