MESA, Ariz. » Thirty years to the day Hawaii played in its first College World Series game, the Rainbows made history again.

Unbelievable, outstanding and, at times, mind-boggling are some of the adjectives applicable to describe fourth-seeded Hawaii's run through the Western Athletic Conference baseball tournament at Hohokam Stadium.

In the end, the only word that matters is champions as the Rainbows (33-26) defeated Fresno State 9-6 to win their first WAC tournament title in 18 years and clinch an NCAA regional berth for the first time since 2006.

“;It was a neat day for our kids because they deserve it,”; Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “;This is what it's about when you work so hard for a whole year, and I guarantee you there's 26 guys in the locker room right now that are glad they got up at 6:30 in September and November and did their morning weights.”;

Hawaii will find out at 6:30 a.m. this morning where it will head for regionals opening on Thursday. The teams hosting in the West region are Cal State Fullerton, UCLA and Arizona State. The selection show will be broadcast on ESPN.

The last five days have had a little bit of everything. It seems like months ago that Kolten Wong stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning with his team trailing 7-6 to Louisiana Tech in the opening game of the tournament.

The second he made contact with a 1-1 offering from Will Alvis, there was no doubt where the ball was headed.

It cleared the fence with ease, and the Rainbows never looked back.

“;One play can make such a big difference and those home runs Kolten hit were make or break for us,”; said sophomore Collin Bennett, who set a tournament record with 13 hits. “;Anything could happen after that.”;

What happened was a Rainbows team that had struggled offensively all season turned into Goliath at the plate. Hawaii hit .379 in the tournament. Five different starters batted at least .400, including Bennett, who finished 13-for-23 with a tournament-record seven doubles.

Bennett and catcher David Freitas, who came through with a clutch RBI single in the eighth after Fresno cut the UH lead to 7-6, joined Wong on the all-tournament team.

Wong was named the most outstanding player, hitting .500 (10-for-20) with three home runs, eight RBIs and 10 runs scored. He had a .593 on-base percentage, a 1.100 slugging percentage, and was so dominant that Fresno State issued two of four intentional walks he received over the last three games.

“;I'm really satisfied, not because of myself, but because I could help the team,”; Wong said. “;I just wanted to get a championship for these guys and as long as we won, that was good enough for me.”;

Fresno State (38-25) saw its run of four straight conference titles end. The Bulldogs lost for just the second time in their last 14 postseason elimination games.

The Bulldogs routed Hawaii 14-5 on Saturday, but were playing their fourth game in 48 hours. It showed on the mound as Fresno was reduced to using six pitchers in the game. Hawaii countered with its three-headed monster of Josh Slaats, Sam Spangler and Lenny Linsky ready to go.

Slaats got the Rainbows into the fourth inning with a 5-3 lead, but walked Brennan Gowens to lead off and was 2-0 on Garrett Weber when Spangler came into the game. He immediately forced Weber to ground into one of four Fresno State double plays and pitched Hawaii into the seventh before turning it over to Linsky.

“;We felt like we were the last line of defense,”; said Spangler (5-6), who gave up one run on two hits in 3 1/3 innings to get the win. “;We couldn't let this team lose.”;

The Rainbows led 7-4 with two outs in the eighth when they nearly let five days of hard work go by the wayside.

Greg Garcia and Wong booted consecutive ground balls to bring the tying run to the plate. Steve Detwiler lifted a fly ball to right field that Matt Roquemore lost in the sun. It went for a two-run triple and the Bulldogs had the tying run 90 feet from home plate when Clay Cederquist, who was 3-for-3 as a pinch hitter in the tourney, flew out to left.

“;I have 100 percent trust in my guys that they'll make the plays when they have to and they did,”; Linsky said.

Hawaii came up with two huge insurance runs to answer in the bottom of the inning. Jeff Van Doornum, who smoked a home run directly over the batter's eye in center field to open the game, had one of UH's four hits in the inning. Freitas hit an RBI single to push the lead to two, and Bennett set the tournament record for hits with a two-out RBI double.

“;We got a lot of clutch hits here at the WAC tournament and I can't be more excited,”; Van Doornum said. “;When they score, we've got to answer back. That's our philosophy and we got it done.”;