The University of Hawaii baseball team parlayed Blaze Koali‘i Pontes’ impressive pitching, Jacob Igawa’s three-run double and six hit batsmen into a 7-4 road victory over Cal State Bakersfield tonight at Hardt Field on the CSUB campus.

Pontes continued his recent mastery, allowing only AJ Miller’s fifth home run, while striking out eight in six innings. In the past five games, Pontes has allowed three earned runs in 19 1/3 innings. During that stretch, he has a 1.40 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and averages 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings.

The Rainbow Warriors loaded the bases on a hit batsman, a walk and a fielder’s choice in the sixth inning. Igawa pulled a drive into the gap in left-center to bring home three runs and give the ’Bows a 3-0 lead.

The Roadrunners scored two runs in the seventh to close to 4-3.

But the ’Bows needed only one hit to score two insurance runs in the eighth. Cole Cabrera was struck by a pitch, then went to second on Stone Miyao’s walk. One out later, Matt Wong singled home Cabrera. The ’Bows reloaded the bases when Jordan Donahue was hit by a pitch after squaring for a squeeze. Aaron Ujimori was hit by a pitch to bring home Miyao.

By winning their sixth in a row, the ’Bows improved to 14-16 overall and 7-6 in the Big West. The Roadrunners fell to 14-17 and 7-3. The second of this three-game series is Friday, with Cade Halemanu starting for UH.