Hawaii clinched a fourth straight losing season Saturday with an 8-3 loss to No. 18 Cal State Fullerton at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif.

Timmy Richards homered and drove in four runs for the league-leading Titans (33-18, 15-5 Big West), who evened the three-game series against the Rainbow Warriors (22-27, 11-12), improving to 29-0 when ahead after six innings.

Freshman Ethan Lopez connected for his second home run of the season and Marcus Doi and Kekai Rios both singled and scored in the second inning to give Hawaii a 2-0 lead.

Richards and Ruben Cardenas blasted two-run homers in a five-run third inning off Hawaii starter Alex Hatch (3-6), who was rocked for seven runs and 11 hits in 51⁄3 innings to take the loss.

“It was just that one inning where he lost command,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “It was one really bad inning that in reality should have been tied 2-2 because we had a line drive to Johnny (Weeks) at third and we had the guy doubled off at first by 10 feet, but he rushed the throw and didn’t realize how much time he had.”

Dalton Blaser followed that play with the go-ahead RBI double and Cardenas crushed a two-run homer to the parking lot behind the wall in left field for a 5-2 advantage.

The Titans improved to 10-1 in Big West games at home with their only loss Friday against Hawaii.

Fullerton is two games ahead of Long Beach State with four to play, while Hawaii dropped to fifth place in the standings.

The Rainbow Warriors will finish with a losing overall record in all four seasons since joining the Big West Conference in 2013.

UH finished 12-12 in Big West games last year for its first non-losing season and would need a win today against the Titans to match that mark.

Cal State Fullerton starter John Gavin (6-2) picked up the win despite falling behind 2-0 early.

Doi and Rios singled to lead off the second inning and Doi scored on Chayce Ka’aua’s sacrifice fly.

Rios added a run on a two-out error by the Titans, who have committed five in the series.

Lopez extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a solo blast off Gavin in the fourth inning to make it 5-3, but Hawaii was held to just two hits from that point on.

Hatch left with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth inning and Isaac Friesen gave up a two-run single to Richards that made it 7-3.

Cardenas tripled and scored off UH reliever Patrick Martin in the seventh inning for Fullerton’s final run.

Lopez finished 2-for-3 and Weeks had UH’s other hit.

Martin, a sophomore left-hander, allowed one run in 22⁄3 innings of relief flashing a fastball gunned between 88 and 89 mph.

He struck out Tanner Pinkston with runners on second and third and one out in the sixth inning and worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning in his first outing since April 25.

“He went out there with no fear for the first time all year,” Trapasso said. “I think that will go a long way for him because he’s a guy that has the capability of being a weekend guy for us next year and that will give him confidence.”

Lopez’s 15-game hitting streak is the longest for a UH player since Kolten Wong hit safely in 16 straight games in his freshman season of 2009. No player has had a longer streak in Trapasso’s 15 seasons as head coach.

Hawaii will start junior Brendan Hornung (4-7, 3.32 ERA) in the rubber game of the season today at 3 p.m. Hawaii time. UH’s only series win against Fullerton was in 1982.