For the second time this season, Hawaii was a strike away from its first home win.
In similarly agonizing fashion, the Rainbows failed to close the deal yet again as Gonzaga strung together three straight two-out hits in the 12th inning to earn a 3-1 victory over UH on Monday night.
Cabe Reiten delivered the game-winning two-run triple off Jon Flinn in the 12th to drop Hawaii to 1-15 overall and 0-11 at home in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 870.
For the second time in their last five home games, the Rainbows lost after leading in the ninth inning.
Hawaii had Rice down to its final strike before losing 7-5.
"I’ve got nothing to say," an irate Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "(Scott) Squier pitched great. We’ve got to score more runs. We’ve got to be better."
Trapasso screamed at his team well after the postgame meeting in right field as Hawaii scored just one run for the fourth straight game.
The Rainbows entered the game with a .216 batting average, ranking them 276th out of 297 teams entering the day. Hawaii’s 2.5 runs per game ranks in the bottom 10 in the country.
Cory LeBrun’s two-out single in the ninth wasted a gem from Squier, who gave up just two hits over the first eight innings.
Alex Bonczyk ended a streak of 15 in a row retired by the sophomore with a single up the middle.
The Rainbows had Bonczyk picked off at first, but the throw from first baseman Marc Flores down to second was high, allowing Bonczyk to reach safely.
LeBrun fell behind before hitting a 1-2 fastball back up the middle to score Bonczyk, who beat the throw of Kalei Hanawahine, a ninth-inning defensive replacement.
Squier went a career-high nine innings in the no-decision and struck out six without a walk.
"I didn’t really feel like I had my best stuff tonight and I just battled and tried to get guys out," Squier said.
The Zags (9-4-1) put the game out of reach with a string of two-out hits in the 12th.
Catcher Travis Forbes dropped a base hit in front of left fielder Adam Hurley, and Clayton Eslick hit a ground ball off the glove of a diving Stephen Ventimilia at second to put runners on the corners.
Reiten then drove a 1-0 pitch into the gap in left-center that fell just beyond the outstretched glove of Hanawahine, allowing both runners to score.
Flinn (0-2) allowed four hits in three innings, getting Billy Moon to fly out to the base of the wall in right to leave men on the corners.
Flores doubled with one out in the 11th as Hawaii finished with just six hits against Gonzaga pitchers Derek Callahan and Michael Rucker.
Flores connected for Hawaii’s first home run of the year and first since Collin Bennett homered to open Hawaii’s final homestand last season — a span of 20 games.
Flores drove a 1-0 pitch from Callahan over both fences in right-center to give the Rainbows their first lead since beating Loyola Marymount 8-3 in Las Vegas 10 days ago.
"I made some adjustments during the week, got my foot down and saw some results," Flores said.
Rucker (1-0) earned the win for Gonzaga, tossing 32⁄3 scoreless innings and allowing just the double to Flores, who was the only Rainbow to have multiple hits in the game.
Hawaii will try to avoid the sweep in the series finale tonight at 6:35.
