Hawaii was two outs from a series split against the 16th-ranked team in the country when disaster struck.

A questionable call at the plate by umpire Jeff Henrichs opened the door for a three-run ninth inning as Oregon rallied to stun Hawaii 3-2 on Monday afternoon.

A Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,192 was furious after Henrichs ruled Hawaii reliever Josh Pigg failed to tag Phil Craig-St. Louis near home plate when he was caught in a rundown.

Instead of trailing 2-0 with two outs and runners on second and third, Oregon (3-1) had the tying run on third and the winning run at second with only one out. After an intentional walk loaded the bases, pinch hitter Tim Susnara found a hole through first and second to bring home the tying run. Mitchell Tolman followed with a clean base hit to right to score J.B. Bryant with the winning run as the Ducks escaped Hawaii with the series win.

"Clutch performance by a freshman getting his first college hit coming off the bench," Oregon coach George Horton said of Susnara. "Two games that probably could have gone either way and we feel fortunate to get off the island with a series victory."

Hawaii (1-3) has lost three games to Oregon in the past two years after leading in the eighth inning, including two this weekend.

UH coach Mike Trapasso, who argued emphatically with Henrichs after the call but was not ejected, refused to put the blame on the umpire after the game.

"We have to take ownership for that inning, because the reality is you can’t walk the leadoff guy and you have to execute the rundown a little better," Trapasso said. "We all thought he tagged him, but those are tough calls for the umpires. After that was over, we still had the lead and got the ground ball we wanted to try and set up a double play, but it found a hole."

Pigg (0-1), who was saddled with the loss, disagreed with Henrichs, who said after the game that Pigg missed the tag.

"Oh I tagged him. I definitely tagged him," Pigg said. "Unfortunate we got a bad call, but you can’t blame the game on that one play."

Hawaii had a chance to force extra innings in the bottom of the inning against Oregon closer Garrett Cleavinger, who picked up the save in Saturday’s 3-2 win.

Jordan Richartz drew a walk to start the inning and moved to third with one out after a sacrifice bunt and a passed ball. Freshman Jonathan Weeks pinch-hit for J.J. Kitaoka and worked a full count before fouling out to first. Matt LoCoco, who was hitting in the leadoff spot for senior Stephen Ventimilia, who missed his second consecutive game with the flu, popped out to second to end it.

"We’re going to take away from this weekend that we are a good team and we’re poised to have a good year if we take ownership for that inning and don’t shift blame, because that call didn’t cost us the game," Trapasso said. "You’ve got to close games and we didn’t close the deal."

After giving up 12 runs in the opener, Hawaii held the Ducks to seven runs over the final three games. Junior Kyle Von Ruden threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings on Monday before giving way to Matt Valencia, who worked 1 1/3 innings and kept the shutout intact.

Pigg made his UH debut and started off with a three-pitch strikeout of Mark Karaviotis in the eighth. He walked Craig-St. Louis to start the ninth and gave up an infield single off of his chest to Jakob Goldfarb to put the tying run on base.

Steven Packard moved the runners over before Bryant pinch-hit for Austin Grebeck and hit the comebacker to Pigg, who immediately had Craig-St. Louis stuck in the rundown. Pigg threw home to Chayce Ka‘aua who chased Craig-St. Louis toward third before throwing to Alex Sawelson, who was covering the bag. Sawelson paused to take a look at the runner behind Craig-St. Louis coming into third before tossing it back to Pigg, who was nearly off the dirt when he appeared to tag Craig-St. Louis as he ran by. Pigg didn’t bother to look back, thinking he had made the tag, but the umpire made the safe sign as Craig-St. Louis slid into home plate.

"It was a tough call," Horton said.

Sawelson had three hits and scored both of UH’s runs. After starting the series 0-for-7, the UH third baseman was 6-for-8 over the last two games.

Alan Baldwin drove him in with a two-out RBI single in the second and Eric Ramirez singled him home in the sixth to chase Oregon starter Jack Karraker.

Stephen Nogosek (2-0) struck out five of the nine batters he faced in three perfect innings to earn the win.

Hawaii has just one day off before starting a five-game series against Hofstra on Wednesday that ends with a doubleheader on Saturday.

NO. 15 OREGON 3, HAWAII 2

E–Eureste, Tolman. LOB–Oregon 11; Hawaii 8. 2B–Cuddy; Sawelson. HBP–Tolman. SH–Packard, Baldwin. SB–St. Louis. CS–Grebeck.

Karraker faced 2 batters in the 6th

Hatch faced 1 batter in the 9th

HBP–by Pigg (Tolman). PB–Chase.

Umpires–(Plate): Jeff Henrichs. (First): Rickey Scarbery. (Third): Ruben Candelaria. T–3:02. A–2,192.