HONOLULU-- The University of Hawai'i baseball team dropped the first game of its series to Washington State, 5-4 Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium in front of an opening-night crowd of 2,146. 

The Rainbow Warriors (0-1) came up short in the first game of the Rich Hill era, marking the third loss against the Cougars in his 35-year career. The Cougars (1-0) have won three straight season openers against current Big West Conference teams. The game was also a record-breaker as it was the longest nine-inning game in program history. The game time of four hours and 27 minutes passed the previous program record of four hours and 15 minutes set against Albany on February 22nd, 2014 of a nine inning game. 
 
UH jumped out to a fast start, picking up three runs over the first four innings against starting pitcher Grant Taylor for a 4-3 advantage. 

After only allowing one hit through three innings, junior starting pitcher Cade Halemanu found some trouble in the top of the fourth. Halemanu gave up a single to start the inning. Two batters later, the Cougars hit one in the gap scoring their first run of the contest. With a runner in scoring position, the WSU batter hit one over the right center field wall to tie things up.

The 'Bows struck back in the bottom of the fourth when sophomore second baseman Stone Miyao singled to drive in graduate center fielder Cole Cabrera for his second run batted in of the night. 

UH held onto the one-run lead until the top of the 6th inning before a WSU single to right field tying the game at 4-4. WSU broke the stalemate in the 8th with a solo shot off of freshman pitcher Harry Gustin. The debut by the Aurora, Colorado native has he pitched two innings in relief, giving up just the one run, but it would end up being costly. 

In the bottom of the ninth, the Warriors managed to get two runners on base with two outs but could not push the runs across. The 'Bows left 12 ducks on the pond and went 0-for-4 in bases-loaded situations.

In his Hawai'i debut, Cabrera led the offense with three hits, a stolen base, and a walk. Miyao added two RBI's tonight on one hit and a walk.

The 'Bows return for game two of the four-game series on Saturday, with the first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. HT. Graduate Andy Archer will debut for the 'Bows on the bump and go against Cole McMillian. 

UH will offer a special on Saturday as fans who attend the men's volleyball game against Loyola Marymount at 7 p.m. HT will be able to take their ticket and Lumisight wristband to Les Murakami Stadium for a free entry into the game.