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HONOLULU - Collin Bennett belted his third homerun in five games and the University of Hawai'i baseball team topped Nevada 2-0 on Thursday at Les Murakami Stadium to move one win closer to a Western Athletic Conference title. The Rainbows improved to 9-7 in the WAC and 29-22 overall while the Wolf Pack dropped to 10-6 in conference and 30-22 overall.
 
UH entered the game needing a series sweep over the Wolf Pack to claim a share of their second straight WAC regular season title. The 'Bows will need wins on both Friday and Saturday to do just that.
 
Jarrett Arakawa (7-5) was brilliant on the mound for Hawai'i, who ended a four-game losing streak with the win. He tossed eight scoreless innings for win, surrendering five hits and walking just one batter. Lawrence Chew worked a perfect ninth inning to pick up his third save of the season.
 
Bennett (1 H, 1 R, 2 RBI) brought his power back from Sacramento, Calif. and recorded his 100th and 101st career RBI. In the first inning, Bennett scored Kaeo Aliviado from third on a sacrifice fly to right field, then capped the scoring with his solo shot in the fourth inning.
 
Breland Almadova batted 2-3 and Aliviado added one run and one RBI.
 
Braden Shipley (8-4) struck out 12 batters for Nevada but was tagged with the loss. He pitched seven complete innings allowing two runs on six hits. Carlos Escobar, Jr. had a pair hits to lead Nevada.

There were 3,020 tickets issued for the contest and a turnstile count of 1,836.
 
Hawai'i and Nevada play game two of their series on Friday at 6:35 p.m.






                                                                                                            -UH-