Former Punahou catcher Zack Kometani nearly came between the Hawaii baseball team and a winning road trip.

Kometani went 3-for-4 with two home runs and San Diego brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning before falling to the visiting Rainbows 8-6 yesterday at Cunningham Stadium.

Kometani, who started at catcher for the fourth time this season, hit two homers for his first two extra-base hits this year. His two-run homer in the ninth off of Lenny Linsky accounted for the first two runs Linsky has given up this season.

Victor Sanchez followed Kometani's homer with a one-out double, but Linsky struck out Scott Schauer swinging and got Bryan Haar to ground out to short to end the game.

“;Big win for us to go 3-2 on this road trip,”; Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “;Lenny was throwing the ball well and left a couple of balls up, but he was throwing good and even after the home run I was confident he'd be able to finish the job for us.”;

Zach Gallagher (2-1) scattered 11 hits over six innings to earn the win and help Hawaii (14-11) close out its first trip to the mainland with a positive record.

Christian Johnson hit a grand slam and Kolten Wong had two hits and scored twice.

Johnson's home run broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning. He cleared the bases by going deep off of Toreros pitcher Matt Thompson, who took the loss to fall to 0-2 this season.

“;They tried to throw a fastball by (Johnson) the pitch before and left it up and he just missed it,”; Trapasso said. “;They came back with a slider and CJ stayed behind it and was on it and that ball was absolutely crushed.”;

San Diego, which used six pitchers in the game, dropped to 14-12.

David Freitas singled home Wong in the seventh to give Hawaii a 6-1 lead.

Gallagher faced two batters in the seventh inning, allowing a leadoff double to Haar and an RBI triple to Matt Moynihan.

Connor Little came on in relief and got out of the inning, allowing a run on a two-out single by Austin Green.

“;(Gallagher's) been able to make the big pitch at the right time and he was good today,”; Trapasso said. “;It wasn't a matter of just kind of gutting it out. He was good.

“;He's throwing really well for us. Those were two big-time starts for him on this road trip.”;

Little walked Sanchez to lead off the eighth and was replaced by Linsky, who hadn't allowed a run in 11 previous appearances. Haar smacked an RBI single up the middle with one out to cut the lead to four, but Linsky worked out of the inning and held a comfortable lead until Kometani's bomb in the ninth.

Linsky finished the game allowing the two runs on four hits, but walked none and struck out three.

Hawaii returns home to host Gonzaga (10-13) for a three-game series beginning Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium. The Rainbows open Western Athletic Conference play a week from Friday at home against four-time defending WAC tournament champion Fresno State (13-11).

Hawaii 8, San Diego 6

E—Wong; Strazzara; Ferraro; Chatwood; Muno. DP—Hawaii 1; San Diego 1. LOB—Hawaii 11; San Diego 12. 2B—Moynihan; Meador; Sanchez 2; Haar. 3B—Macdonald; Van Doornum; Moynihan. HR—Johnson; Kometani 2. SH—Maoynihan. SF—Wong. CS—Hotta; Haar.

WP—Linsky. HBP—by Little (Meador).
Umpires — Heath Jones (Plate); Brad Hungerford (First); Dan Ignosci (Third).
T—3:48. A—215.