The Cal State Northridge baseball team rode a 15 mph jet stream to Friday’s 15-10 victory over Hawaii at Robert J. Hiegert Field on the CSUN campus.

“It’s an absolute factor,” UH coach Rich Hill said of the winds blowing to left field in the 64-year-old stadium. “Northridge can give you that. The score’s 15-10 for a reason. The wind’s blowing straight out to left. Being at night doesn’t really matter there. It’s an offensive ballpark, and they out-slugged us.”

The Matadors amassed 16 hits, including three home runs, and took advantage of five Hawaii errors.

The outcome ended the Rainbow Warriors’ six-game winning streak. The ’Bows fell to 18-6 overall and 6-4 in the Big West. The Matadors improved to 6-15 and 3-7.

The ’Bows fell behind early, and played most of the game without head coach Rich Hill. In the first inning, Hill was ejected after seeking an interpretation of a run-scoring balk. Because of UH pitcher Itsuki Takemoto’s unique delivery, Hill appeared to ask for a clarification to relay to Takemoto.

Hill said he could not comment on the situation, citing Big West bylaws. After the ejection, Hill went back to the hotel where the team is staying, and listened to KKEA’s broadcast of the game.

There was no misinterpreting the struggles of Takemoto, who moved to the front of the starting rotation after three strong outings in a row. But Takemoto yielded a leadoff homer to Roberto Gonzalez in the first inning. With Andrew Becker on first, Jarren Sanderson singled up the middle. The ball eluded center fielder Matthew Miura as Becker scored and Stephenson raced to third. It was Miura’s first error in his three-season UH career. Sanderson then came home on the balk for a 3-0 lead. Matthew Pena’s two-run homer extended the Matadors’ lead to 5-0.

The Matadors added four more in the third to expand the margin to 9-2.

UH second baseman Shunsuke Sakaino’s two-run double against his former team and Ben Zeigler-Namoa’s three-run homer helped the ’Bows close to 9-8 in the fifth. But the Matadors scored three in the bottom of the fifth and, after the ’Bows cut the deficit to 12-10, added three more runs in the seventh.

It appeared the ’Bows would escape the seventh-inning threat without surrendering any runs. After Kyle Panganiban singled to left, Trent Abel appeared to be thrown out at the plate for the third out. But umpire Darrel Mason ruled that UH third baseman Draven Nushida impeded Abel’s sprint from second to home. Abel was awarded the run, extending CSUN’s lead to 13-10. Becker followed with a two-run homer to right to make it 15-10.

Ryan Halamicek, who gave up eight runs in six innings, earned his first victory to improve to 1-3. Logan Miller earned the seven-out save.

“I was really proud of the way the guys fought back,” Hill said. “They banded together. CSUN kept putting it on us. They deserve all the credit, and they deserved to win.”

Hill added: “The outcomie was unfortunate. The great thing about baseball is the word ‘tomorrow.’”

First pitch is 1:30 p.m. for today’s middle game of the three-game series.