After a slow start, the Hawaii baseball team surged to a 9-5 victory over UC Davis tonight at Les Murakami Stadium.

By winning the opener of the three-game series, the Rainbow Warriors improved to 12-16 overall and 2-2 in the Big West. The Aggies fell to 9-13 and 2-2.

In an uncharacteristic early struggle, UH starting pitcher Aaron Davenport allowed the first three Aggies to reach base in what turned into a 3-0 UCD lead.

But the ’Bows stormed back to score five runs in the second inning. Two of the runs came on Tyler Murray’s single; two others were a result of right fielder Alejandro Lara misplaying Maaki Yamazaki’s drive.

Davenport did not allow a run from the second through the sixth innings. He exited after allowing a two-out run in the seventh. It was Davenport’s longest stint of the season.

In the four appearances since returning from a strained rotator cuff, Davenport has allowed five earned runs in 22 innings.

After the Aggies closed to 6-5 in the eighth, the ’Bows answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Two of the runs came on a Yamazaki single.

The teams meet at 6:35 p.m. Saturday.