Showing why it is ranked sixth in the country, Arizona State jumped on Hawai'i early en route to a 9-2 non-conference baseball win last night at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark in Tempe, Ariz.

The Sun Devils (33-10), winners of 12 in a row, jumped on UH starter Nick Rhodes for four runs in the first and never looked back. Rhodes (0-2) lasted just one-third of an inning, giving up four runs.

C.J. Retherford (1-1) was the most effective of the eight ASU pitchers used. He was the third relief pitcher for starter Joey Parigi, who gave up both of UH's second-inning runs, allowing no runs and a hit with two strikeouts in two innings.

"They are a very good club, no doubt," UH coach Mike Trapasso said.

The Rainbows (27-17) pulled to within 4-2 in the top of the second on Landon Hernandez's two-run single. But that was all they could muster against the Pac-10 power.

Cameron Wheeler followed Rhodes, going 4 1/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned), seven hits and a walk, striking out one. Jeff Soskin was the most effective, allowing a run and three hits in 3 1/3 innings.

"I was happy for him," Trapasso said of Soskin, who entered the game having pitched just 3 2/3 innings.

Mike Jones batted 3 for 3 and scored three times to pace ASU's 14-hit attack that included three doubles and two triples. Brett Wallace, Kiel Roling, Petey Paramore and Ike Davis each had two hits.

The Rainbows (8-7 WAC) go to New Mexico State (19-24, 4-11) next for a three-game Western Athletic Conference series beginning tomorrow. Mark Rodrigues will start the opener and Ian Harrington on Sunday. Saturday's starter will be determined after tomorrow's game because it will be based on which pitcher is available, Trapasso said.

Meanwhile, the NCAA finally has made public the Ratings Percentage Index for Division I baseball. It comes years after independent Web sites, such as Boyd's World and warrennolan.com have posted what has been referred to as "pseudo RPIs."

"I think the fact that they kept that quiet for all these years has always been a joke," Trapasso said. "The fact that they would wait this long to publish it is another thing the NCAA has been secretive about. Yet you have these Web sites that know the formula and have posted it, so we haven't been in the dark about what our RPI (has been) for a number of years now. That's what so funny about it."

Hawai'i is ranked No. 132, third highest among the WAC teams. Fresno State is 95. Louisiana Tech is next at 114. Nevada is 158, San Jose State is 176, New Mexico State is 226 and Sacramento State is 235.

The RPI is one factor used by the selection committee in picking at-larger berths for regionals. There are 26 automatic qualifiers (conference champions) in the 64-team field.

How the RPI might affect the WAC as far as having more than one berth, it's still too early to tell, Trapasso said. The WAC tournament champion gets the conference's automatic berth.

"We just have to go out and win out the rest of the way, play well down the stretch and do well in the tournament" Trapasso said.

The Rainbows are 1-7 against opponents ranked in the top 30 RPI. They went 1-2 against Arizona (27 RPI), 0-3 against Wichita State (11) and 0-1 against Arizona State (8).

Four teams UH has played already are ranked 223 or higher: Pacific (223), Wisconsin-Milwaukee (233), Sacramento State (235) and Chicago State (291). The Rainbows still have the Aggies this weekend and UH-Hilo (284) next weekend.

There are 293 Division I teams.