The University of Hawaii baseball team could not produce an effective offense or a persuasive argument in a 4-0 loss to Long Beach State to open Big West play.

A crowd of 2,253 at Blair Field on the LBSU campus saw the Rainbow Warriors manage two hits against Luis Ramirez and Matt Fields in Friday’s opener of a three-game series. The Dirtbags won their fourth in a row to improve to 9-7 overall and 1-0 in the Big West. The ’Bows are 6-11 and 0-1.

Ramirez allowed two hits while striking out 10 to lower his ERA to 0.36 and WHIP to 0.76 this season. Fields retired the final six batters in order.

“You see that kind of guy all the time,” UH coach Rich Hill said of Ramirez. “That’s Big West Friday guys. We have to get 1% better tomorrow, and eventually be really good against that type of pitching.”

Both of the ’Bows’ hits came in the first two innings. Scotty Scott reached on a one-out infield hit, but then was thrown out attempting to steal second. In the second inning, Jacob Igawa singled to center and DallasJ Duarte reached on third baseman Tyler Porter’s error. Both runners advanced on Stone Miyao’s one-out grounder. But Porter made a diving stop of Kyson Donahue’s sizzling grounder for the third out.

“Kyson smoked the ball, and (Porter) made the play,” Hill said. “Tip your hat to him. I thought we had our chances to get to Ramirez early. We knew exactly what he was going to do. We couldn’t execute.”

The Dirtbags broke a scoreless game in the fourth on Tanner Carlson’s RBI groundout to deep short.

In LBSU’s three-run fourth, second baseman Eddie Saldivar’s double against Cameron Hagan brought home two runners — both charged to starting pitcher Andy Archer.

The first nine batters went 1-for-8 against Archer, who was making his fifth start. The Dirtbags went 7-for-13 the second and third time against Archer.

“He’s just got to be surgical with the fastball,” Hill said of Archer, who has yet to pitch five complete innings in any of his UH starts. “He’s been good a couple times through the lineup. He keeps you in the game, competes. With him, we’re looking for improvement that next time out. He’ll be better next time.”

Hill was the center of controversy when Duarte was penalized a third strike in the seventh when home-plate umpire Ramon Armendariz ruled the 20-second clock had expired. Hill, who was coaching third, argued that Duarte had both feet in the batter’s box with a second remaining on the 20-second pitch clock.

“They didn’t give him a warning, they just (penalized) him, called him out on strikes,” Hill said. “I’m in the third-base box. They have a 20-second clock right in line with the hitter. At one second, it was close, obviously, but (Duarte) had both feet in and was ready to go.”

Hill was ejected, although the punishment was only for Friday night. “I do not have to sit out a game,” Hill said.

Hill said Cade Halemanu, who was UH’s opening pitcher for two series this year, will start today.