HONOLULU – Dallas Duarte's eighth-inning double broke a scoreless tie and propelled the Hawai'i baseball team to a 1-0 shutout win over Big West leader UC San Diego in Friday's series opener at Les Murakami Stadium.
 
After Jared Quandt led off the eighth inning with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, Duarte came up with two outs and lined an 0-2 pitch the other way to score Quandt and untie the 0-0 game. Harrison Bodendorf, who entered the pitch the eighth inning, came back out and set the Tritons down in order in the ninth to preserve the win.
 
Both starting pitchers turned in dominant starts. Harry Gustin tossed 5.2 scoreless innings for the 'Bows, fanning seven while scattering three hits and three walks highlighted by a stretch of seven straight batters retired from the third through sixth innings. UCSD's Michael Mitchell was equally as impressive, working five scoreless innings with five strikeouts while walking one and giving up three hits.
 
UCSD threatened in the sixth inning, putting two runners on with two out. Alex Giroux replaced Gustin after a two-out single and induced a ground ball to end the inning and strand a pair of runners on base. Giroux then worked around a one-out hit in the seventh before giving way to Bodendorf in the eighth, as he worked a 1-2-3 frame to set up Duarte's heroics in the eighth.
 
The Hawai'i pitching staff put together its second shutout of the season, as Gustin, Giroux and Bodendorf combined to strike out 10 while allowing just four hits. Over the last seven home games, Rainbow Warrior pitching has posted a 1.14 ERA while striking out 69 batters over 63.0 innings, giving up just 43 hits. Gustin also has a 1.89 ERA with 22 strikeouts over 19.0 innings in his last three starts at home.
 
The win marked the fifth straight game for the Rainbow Warriors that was decided by one run. The 'Bows are 2-3 in that stretch while the win improved them to 5-5 on the season in one-run games.
 
The two teams continue the series Saturday night at 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium. Hawai'i is scheduled to start lefty Randy Abshier while UCSD will counter with RHP Seth Sumner.