Cody Wheeler couldn't even jinx himself.

The sophomore left-hander fired the first no-hitter of his life to help No. 18 Coastal Carolina beat Hawai'i, 4-0, last night in the opener of a four-game series in front of 1,641 at Les Murakami Stadium.

"About the fifth inning, I looked up (at the scoreboard) and didn't see any (hits) and the first thing I'm thinking, 'I'm going to give up a hit.' I always jinx myself like that. I just happened to battle through it and end up with the 'W.' "

It was the Big South school's first no-hitter since 2005. It was just the fourth time UH has been no-hit, the last coming in 1998 against Rice's Jeff Nichols in a seven-inning game in Houston. The only other time UH was no-hit at this stadium was Feb. 19, 1982, when Derek Diaz and Horace Gray combined on one for UH-Hilo, which still lost, 3-1. The first time UH was no-hit also was a combined effort in 1971 by Southern California's Randy Scarberry, Tom Coffin and Mark Sogge at old Honolulu Stadium. Wheeler's was the first solo no-no.

"It feels unbelievable," said the 5-foot-11, 160-pounder from Sposylvania, Va. "I can't describe anything else like this. This is once in a lifetime."

It was his first complete game and his 10 strikeouts were a career-high. What was unusual was that Wheeler (5-0) walked three; he entered the game having walked four in 30 innings.

But he also was the beneficiary of some brilliant fielding. Center fielder Rico Noel robbed No. 9 hitter Ryan Morford of two possible hits by hauling down two drives, one to center and one to right-center. He also hauled in a drive by Kevin Macdonald to end the game, giving Wheeler a scare.

"When he hit that last ball, I thought it was a hit," Wheeler said. "My heart just dropped. Then I see Rico just hunt it down. It was the greatest feeling in the world.

"He's a one-in-a-million center fielder. There's not many balls in the park that he can't track down. Glad to have him out there. He helped me all night long."

Shortstop Taylor Motter also made a sliding stop up the middle on a grounder by Landon Hernandez to steal another possible hit.

"I just let my defense do all the work for me," Wheeler said. "My heart was racing a hundred miles an hour. I could barely breathe."

As great as the Chanticleers (19-4) played defensively, the Rainbows (13-9) did not.

Early in the game, Hawai'i starter Jayson Kramer (1-3) was toe-to-toe with Wheeler. He pitched seven innings, allowing two runs (one earned), five hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Harrison Kuroda gave up the other two runs in the eighth, in part to defensive mistakes.

"What I'm more disappointed in more than getting no-hit — you just tip your hat to him; he just beat us — is the fact we didn't play good defense," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "That's the second game in a row.

"We made four mistakes that cost us four runs," he added. "We don't cover first; we fumble a bunt; we make a throw in the dugout we shouldn't be making; and we over throw a cutoff man. I don't know. Maybe we still could be playing if we don't give up those four runs, just grind it out until we can get Wheeler out of the game because he was that good. We have to be better than that because those are mistakes we know not to make."

The Chanticleers broke the scoreless deadlock in the sixth. Scott Woodward led off with a single to first in which he beat Kramer covering the bag on a grounder to first baseman Macdonald. Woodward stole second and took third when Noel reached on a sacrifice bunt that third baseman Vinnie Catricala fumbled for an error. Tyler Bortnick was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. David Anderson's sacrifice fly to left scored Woodward and Chance Gilmore's single up the middle scored Noel. Bortnick was thrown out at third when Macdonald cut off the throw home.

Coastal Carolina added two in the eighth off Kuroda. With one out, Woodward beat out a single to short, but took second on shortstop Greg Garcia's throwing error on the play. Noel followed with an RBI single to center and took second on center fielder Kolten Wong's throw that missed the cutoff. An out later, Noel scored on Anderson's single to make it 4-0.

Kramer had some trouble with his Achillies in the seventh inning. After throwing a warmup, he remained in the game. It has been bothering him for a couple weeks, Trapasso said.

"Jayson threw well," catcher Hernandez said. "Just a couple mental mistakes that we made ended up hurting us."

The series continues with a doubleheader starting at 3:30 p.m. today. The first game is scheduled for nine innings with the nightcap set for seven.