The UC Irvine baseball team unleashed 21 hits to earn a tap-out 20-10 beating of Hawaii at Cicerone Field at Anteater Ball Park in Irvine, Calif.

Mike Peabody’s run-scoring single drove in the eighth Anteater run of the seventh inning, triggering the Big West’s mercy rule. This year, games are called when a team amasses a 10-run lead in the seventh inning or later.

“Humbling,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said in a telephone interview. “That’s the only word you can come up with. That’s baseball. You’re either humbled or you’re about to be.”

The Rainbow Warriors entered the four-game series ranked 30th nationally and competing for a place atop the Big West. After being swept, extending their losing streak to five, the ’Bows are seeking a remedy for a suddenly inconsistent pitching staff.

In 32 innings this series, the ’Bows relinquished 40 runs — 27 of them earned — walked 27 and plunked 10. “We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Trapasso, who doubles as the pitching coach. “I have a lot of work to do to figure out how we can be better on the mound.”

The Anteaters have won all eight of their Big West games while improving to 14-7 overall.

UH’s Logan Pouelsen struggled in his second Big West start, giving up five runs (four earned) and seven hits in 11⁄3 innings. “He needs to be better,” Trapasso said.

The Anteaters built an 8-1 lead before the ’Bows rallied. The ’Bows scored seven in the fifth — keyed by Tyler Best’s two-run single — to tie it. After UCI regained the lead at 9-8, the ’Bows evened it on Adam Fogel’s solo blast over the wall in left field, then went ahead, 10-9, on Alex Baeza’s double to the left-field corner to plate Kole Kaler.

But the ’Bows’ bullpen was faulty. The Anteaters scored three in the sixth inning, and eight in the seventh.

UH’s seven relievers were burned for a combined 14 hits and 15 runs. While Cameron Hagan had statistically the best UH outing — an earned run in 21⁄3 innings — collectively, Trapasso said, “when you give up 20 runs, there’s nobody you can point to (and) say, ‘good job.’ It was a very humbling day.”

Trapasso tried several moves to boost the offense, penning a lineup that included Jacob Igawa and Safea Villaruz-Mauai. Second baseman Stone Miyao also batted leadoff for the first time this season. Igawa reached base three times and scored two runs, and Villaruz-Mauai had two hits and drove in two runs.

But the ’Bows gave away too many so-called freebies: two walks, five hit batsmen and three errors. “Home-team scoring,” Trapasso said, “we really made six (errors).”

And the ’Bows could not solve the Anteaters’ lineup. Peabody, Jacob Castro, and Connor McGuire had four hits each. Nathan Church had three hits, including his league-leading fifth triple.

Trapasso said the bullpen’s implosion was “out of character for us.” He added: “It doesn’t matter. It was a pretty good ass kicking.”

The ’Bows are scheduled to depart this morning on the flight to Honolulu. The ’Bows play host to UC Santa Barbara this weekend.