Two ground balls found holes for hits, making it a productive night for Marcus Doi.

A triple into the gap in left-center turned it into a much-needed confidence boost.

The Hawaii outfielder recorded his first three-hit game in nearly a year, scoring twice in the Rainbow Warriors’ 4-1 victory over Chicago State on Saturday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

A 25th-round draft pick out of high school, Doi has battled injuries throughout his career and got off to an ugly start in the series with four strikeouts in seven empty at-bats.

He turned it around before a crowd of 1,678 on Saturday, tripling his hit total from the five previous games since returning last week from an ankle injury for Hawaii (8-12).

“I went back to the basics with my swing and then Coach brought us in for the fifth inning when we really came on and focused on hard ground balls back up the middle,” said Doi, who raised his average 66 points to .278. “Three-for-3 was nice but the 4-1 score was even better.”

Doi is a critical piece of Hawaii’s lineup that put up nine hits against the Cougars (5-11), but still isn’t performing to the level it needs to be at in the Big West.

All four runs scored in the game came after hits by Doi in the fifth and seventh innings started things off.

Catcher Kekai Rios doubled and scored in the fifth, executed a sacrifice bunt in the third inning and drove in Doi with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning.

Jacob Sheldon-Collins had two hits and an RBI and second baseman Josh Rojas added an RBI single.

Hawaii’s middle of the order, with third baseman Johnny Weeks moving into the third spot, finished 2-for-14, with Eric Ramirez getting the only two hits for batters hitting third through sixth in the lineup.

“It takes you a time or two through the lineup to just gear down a little bit against a softy lefty, but we’re getting there,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “We really focused on changing our approach about halfway through that game. We tried to hit everything right back up the box, and then all of a sudden we scored three runs. Every time we got out of that approach we popped it up.”

Alex Hatch (2-2) recorded Hawaii’s third straight quality start and tied a career high with seven strikeouts.

He left after walking the first two batters in the seventh, forcing Hawaii to use reliever Cody Culp for the third straight night.

Culp got catcher Chris Hipchen to hit into a double play when pinch runner Jeremy Cole was called for interference sliding into second base. After a short argument from Chicago State coach Steve Joslyn, Culp struck out David Wright to end it.

“I need to establish better rhythm, that’s for sure, but other than that I felt pretty good after that first inning,” said Hatch, who allowed six hits in six innings. “I got a little bit tired there at the end and started throwing the ball and that’s what I need to work on. When I get tired, I need to maintain focus and keep the ball down.”

Sheldon-Collins capped off Hawaii’s three-run fifth inning with an RBI single to right on a perfectly executed hit-and-run to give UH a 3-1 lead. He was back in the lineup after a two-game absence with the stomach flu.

“I was just miserable,” said Sheldon-Collins, who lost 8 pounds over the past week. “Having to sit at home and watch (the first two games) on TV was absolutely miserable. You just want to be out here to help the team and to finally come out and contribute a little bit felt really good.”

Hawaii cashed in on its big inning, while the Cougars missed an opportunity to take a big lead early.

The first three batters reached base on hits off of Hatch, who was down 1-0 and had runners on first and second with nobody out.

The Cougars tried a bunt, but the ball popped up just enough in the air that Rios was able to snag it for the first out and thrown down to second to double off Julian Russell.

Hatch retired 11 of the next 12 until Wright singled with one out in the fifth. Rios quickly erased the baserunner, throwing out Wright trying to steal second.

“Kekai is very reliable behind the dish and I trust him with my life,” Hatch said of his catcher. “(The double play) really turned things around for me and brought me into the game.”

E–Hunt, Wright. DP–Chicago State 1. Hawaii 1. LOB–Chicago State 6, Hawaii 4. 2B-Wright, Freund, Ramirez, Rios. 3B–Doi. HBP–Grosse. SF–Rios. SH–Rios. SB–Russell, Gertonson. CS–Wright, Rojas.

HBP–by Culp (Grosse).

Hatch pitched to 2 batters in the sixth

Umpires–(Plate): Bob Williams. (First): Kevin Daugherty. (Third): Ruben Candelaria. T–2:22. A–1,678.