CORVALLIS, ORE. ? Hawaii showed Sunday that it’s a fast learner.

On Friday, the Rainbows blew an early 5-0 advantage and lost, 9-6, to Kansas University in the opening game of the NCAA Corvallis Regional baseball tournament. On Sunday, however, Hawaii turned the tables, erased an early 5-0 KU lead and eventually ousted the Jayhawks from the double-elimination event with a 9-5 victory at Goss Stadium.

Kansas (43-25), seeded second in the four-team regional, also lost, 11-3, to top-seeded Oregon State on Saturday night.

Hawaii junior reliever Darrell Fisherbaugh overcame a cut on the knuckle of his pitching thumb and blanked the Jayhawks over the final 51â3 innings. Senior right fielder Matt Inouye hit a two-run homer in the third for a 5-all tie, and then jacked a two-run shot in the fifth for a 7-5 lead.

Fisherbaugh, who also threw a scoreless inning in Friday’s game, protected that cushion by inducing two double plays and 12 ground-ball outs with his split-finger fastball.

“(Fisherbaugh) was unbelievable, to come in and put up six zeroes like that,” KU coach Ritch Price said. “And (Inouye) hitting the two runs obviously changed the complexion and direction of the game.

Kansas University starting pitcher Ricky Fairchild throws against Hawaii in the first inning. Fairchild surrendered five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning as Hawaii's game-winning rally began. Hawaii defeated KU, 9-5, Sunday in Corvallis, Ore., ending the Jayhawks' season.

“(Fisherbaugh) did a good job of throwing the split for strikes. One of the things you get out of that, when you command it down in the zone, is ground-ball outs.

“The double-play balls were all hit hard, right at infielders. I thought we had good at-bats. Their infield played super. The three double plays they turned were huge to get them out of trouble, and (shortstop Nathan Young) also made two or three nice plays from deep in the hole.”

Fisherbaugh didn’t have a strikeout and escaped several brushes with disaster.

KU freshman second baseman Ryne Price nearly tied the game with a three-run homer in the eighth, but his 375-foot fly ball to right-center was caught at the warning track. Senior right fielder Gus Milner nearly had a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth, but his blast well over the left-field fence curved foul at the last instant.

The KU dugout reacts as Hawaii pitches to its final batter.

Milner then grounded out to end the game.

“It was a mirror image of our Friday game with Kansas,” Hawaii (45-16) coach Mike Trapasso said. “When you’re down 5-0, you’re looking for something positive to say, and Kansas had shown us on Friday that it could be done,” so he reminded his team of KU’s recent comeback.

“Matt’s hits were huge, and I can’t say enough about what Darrell Fisherbaugh did. He was outstanding. He got ahead in the count, got ground balls, got double plays.”

KU roughed up Hawaii starter Mark Rodrigues with four first-inning runs, and senior first baseman Jared Schweitzer made it 5-0 with a homer in the third, his second of the regional. But Hawaii responded with five runs off starter Ricky Fairchild in the third for the tie, the final two on Inouye’s home run to left-center.

Brendan McNamara relieved Fairchild in the fourth and escaped a two-on, no-out jam unscathed. However, Inouye homered to almost the exact same spot as his first in the fifth inning for a 7-5 lead; Hawaii added single runs in the sixth and eighth for added insurance and was in command the rest of the way behind Fisherbaugh.

Kansas' Ryne Price (11) is forced out at second base as Hawaii's Nathan Young (6) turns a double play. The Rainbows notched three double plays and defeated the Jayhawks, 9-5, Sunday in Corvallis, Ore.

“He was pretty effective,” said Schweitzer, who was 3-for-5 on Sunday to finish at .583 (7-of-12), with two homers and four RBI, in three regional games. “He was throwing splits about 80 percent of his pitches, but he threw it for strikes, and there were a lot of ground balls with it.”

KU had two runners aboard in the third, fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth innings but the twin killings aborted several budding rallies. The Jayhawks hit into three double plays and stranded eight.

Fisherbaugh injured the knuckle closest to the fingernail on his right thumb while warming up in the bullpen. Pitchers are prohibited from wearing band-aids on their throwing hand, so he unsuccessfully tried to close the wound with Superglue and compression from a towel.

“It kept bleeding,” Fisherbaugh said, as his blood-stained white uniform attested. “Usually I have a couple more strikeouts, but not having any led to a couple double plays we turned.”

KU’s 43 victories were the second-most in school history, bettered only by the 1993 NCAA Regional team that went 45-18. The only other team with more than 40 wins was the 1994 club, KU’s last to advance to the NCAAs before this season’s team.

“It’s pretty special to be here the first time for all of us,” said center fielder Matt Baty, one of eight seniors who concluded their college careers on Sunday. “It’s a letdown that we didn’t advance.

“But I’m proud of the guys and proud to be associated with this team and with coach Price. I’m just proud to be a Jayhawk. I’ll always be a Jayhawk, and it doesn’t matter what we did here.”