Rice successfully doubled down to hold off Hawaii in Friday night’s 5-2 baseball victory at Les Murakami Stadium.

A crowd of 1,625 saw the Owls turn four double plays to claim the opener of this four-game series between former Western Athletic Conference members.

The four double plays increased the Owls’ total to an NCAA-leading 19 this season.

In unfortunate outcomes, three of UH left fielder Ben Zeigler-Namoa’s hard hits resulted in double plays. Center fielder Kyle McDonald caught Zeigler-Namoa’s drive and then launched a powerful throw to catch Austin Machado at the plate in the first inning.

In the third inning, right fielder Trey Duffield caught a Zeigler-Namoa liner and then doubled off Matthew Miura at first.

Down 5-2, the ’Bows loaded the bases with one out in the ninth. Zeigler-Namoa pulled a grounder to second baseman Pierce Gallo, who started a game-ending double play.

Four Rice pitchers combined on a five-hitter but allowed nine walks and hit UH’s DallasJ Duarte, who has absorbed six of the ’Bows’ 26 hit by pitches this season. Rice starter Parker Smith allowed three hits in five innings to improve to 2-2.

“You’ve got to give credit to them,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “That was a quality start by Smith. I think the second time around, the third time, whatever it was, he really started to mix. He was offspeed early, fastball late. He held his velocity. I thought the lefty (Tom Vincent) who came in was outstanding. He kept us off balance. They got to their closer (Garrett Stratton).”

Vincent allowed a run in two innings. Stratton faced only one batter to earn his first save.

The ’Bows stranded 11 runners, including five in scoring position.

“We made things interesting, like we did all night,” Hill said. “We had baserunners all over the place. Sometimes you don’t get that big hit. Ben had that big one against North Carolina State. That’s baseball.”

Harrison Bodendorf, who was pulled after walking the leadoff hitter in the fourth, threw strikes on 31 of 44 pitches.

“I thought it was time to go to (Alex) Giroux,” Hill said. “It was that time in the lineup. We left Bode in there in the fourth to face that lefty (Nathan Becker). He walked him on almost four straight. It was time to go to Alex.”

Giroux struck out six of the first seven batters he faced. “Alex was great,” Hill said. “Once again, he did his thing. I thought he got a little bit tired out there (in the seventh). We didn’t help him out.”

Giroux, who was pitching for the fourth time in 10 days, said he relied on a cutter of which he learned the grip from former ’Bow Harry Gustin. “My hand kind of works around the ball that way,” said Giroux, a right-hander. “It’s a very natural pitch for me.”

Becker’s RBI single expanded the Owls’ lead to 4-1 in the eighth. Jack Riedel’s run-scoring double made it 5-1.

The Owls scored a wind-aided run in the sixth to pad their lead to 3-1. Gallo and Treyton Rank each hit two-out singles. Ben Royo then hit a towering popup that landed between second baseman Stone Miyao and first baseman Kyson Donahue as Gallo raced home.

Gallo and Rank hit back-to-back doubles to give the Owls a 1-0 lead to open the second inning. The Owls made it 2-0 when Brendan Cumming singled home Rank with a drive to right.

The ’Bows closed to 2-1 in the second when Duarte drew a walk, stole second and scored on Miyao’s ground single to right field.