Mike Trapasso has coined the phrase “pitch-ability” to describe his 13-man pitching staff this season.

Sunday, the only ability Hawaii showed on the mound was throwing a whole bunch of balls.

Starter Josh Pigg and three relievers combined to tie a program record with 17 walks allowed that the Lobos gladly used to hand Hawaii its worst home loss as an NCAA member.

The 18-0 final score was the worst margin of victory UH had suffered at home since 1967 — four years before it joined the NCAA. It was also the most runs an opposing team had scored at Les Murakami Stadium since a 23-11 defeat to UCLA in 1997.

The only worse loss UH has had since joining the NCAA was a 22-1 contest on the road at UC Irvine in 1974 as part of a 17-game season.

“That was a day to just flush and forget about,” Trapasso said. “That’s across the board a bad day. Gave up 18 runs, scored zero runs, made two errors — even the scoreboard operator was a circus — the entire day was just a complete disaster.”

A crowd of 1,525 saw the Lobos score at least two runs in five consecutive innings to take a 15-0 lead after six.

By then, Hawaii had three different pitchers combine to throw exactly 200 pitches with 96 recorded as balls.

Pigg, who made his first career start for the Rainbow Warriors, was roughed up for seven hits and eight runs — three earned — in 32⁄3 innings with five walks and two strikeouts.

Reliever Patrick Martin replaced Pigg and walked eight in two innings and sophomore Bryce Ah Sam added four more walks as Hawaii tied the program record for walks allowed set in 1982 by the eighth inning.

“You’ve got to go out there and do your job and unfortunately I didn’t do that,” said Pigg, who pitched only 92⁄3 innings as a junior. “It starts with the guy on the mound and I just didn’t set the tone today.”

Hawaii’s bullpen had to throw five of the 11 innings played Saturday and another 41⁄3 innings on Friday when starter Brendan Hornung couldn’t make it out of the fifth.

UH (2-3) still has another game to go against the Lobos (2-1) and can even the series with senior Alex Hatch getting the nod at a special 5:35 pm. start time. A drop-dead time of 9 has been put in place to allow the Lobos to catch their flight in time.

“The good thing is we get one more game (today) to even a series against a team that if they’re not a Top-25 team, they’re knocking on the door,” Trapasso said. “How we bounce back is the important thing. I hated leaving guys like Patrick and Bryce out there for us, but we’re thin in the ’pen when Josh doesn’t give us anything in his start.

“They had to take one for the team.”

Carl Stajduhar and Jared Mang clobbered home runs in the fifth inning and catcher Scottie Graham drove in a career-high five runs for New Mexico.

The Lobos were equally impressive on the mound with starter Colton Thomson (1-0) allowing two hits in six innings. Austin Isenhart completed the four-hit shutout with a three-inning save in an 18-run ballgame.

“The biggest thing was the four-hit shutout,” New Mexico coach Ray Birmingham said. “We got some clutch two-out hits early that broke the game open and then when the game got loose, they brought in the back of their bullpen.”

Hawaii mounted its only offensive threat in the fourth inning on one-out singles by Jacob Sheldon-Collins and Eric Ramirez. Alex Fitchett drew a walk to load the bases with one out, but Thomson got Alan Baldwin to pop out to third on the first pitch and Josh Rojas to fly out to center.

Baldwin started at catcher with freshman Kobi Candaroma going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his first collegiate start in right field.

Hawaii has used three different starters behind the plate in five games with sophomore Chayce Ka’aua expected to be out 4-6 weeks with a broken finger suffered in Friday’s loss.

SATURDAY’S GAME

Hawaii 4, New Mexico 3, 11 Innings

E—Weeks, Von Ruden. DP—Hawaii 2. LOB—New Mexico 13. Hawaii 9. 2B–Zoellner, Doi. HR—LoCoco. HBP—Holley. SH—Eaton, Sheldon-Collins, Baldwin, Doi, Weeks, Rios. SB–Eaton.

One out when winning run scored.
WP–Tripp, Ryan 2. HBP—Holley (by Valencia). Umpires—(Plate): Billy Speck. (First): Patrick Riley. (Third): Jeff Henrichs. T—3:55. A—2,376.

SUNDAY’S GAME

New Mexico 18, Hawaii 0

E—Sheldon-Collins; Weeks. DP—Hawaii 1. LOB—New Mexico 19. Hawaii 5. 2B–Eaton; Zoellner; Graham. HR—Stajduhar; Mang. HBP—Gonzalez. SH—Graham. SF–Mang. SB–Mang; Bowers.

WP–Pigg 2; Martin. HBP—by Martin (Gonzalez). Umpires—(Plate): Patrick Riley. (First): Jeff Henrichs. (Third): Billy Speck. T—3:20. A—1,525.