The UC Santa Barbara baseball team rode a six-run second inning to an 8-2 victory over Hawaii today at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on the UCSB campus.

The Rainbow Warriors fell to 19-12 overall and 4-6 in the Big West. The Gauchos are 19-10 and 6-4.

After a 1-2-3 first inning, UH left-hander Randy Abshier allowed the first eight Gauchos to reach base in the second. Justin Trimble’s two-run double and Ivan Brethowr’s two-run homer were the big hits as the Gauchos broke away to a 6-0 lead. After that, Abshier, making his first series-opening start of his two-season UH career, allowed three base-runners the next 3 1/3 innings.

The ’Bows closed to 6-2 on Matthew Miura’s solo home run in the fourth inning and Jake Tsukada’s RBI single in the fifth. But Trimble’s two-run double restored the Gauchos’ six-run advantage in the seventh.

Ryan Gallagher, a sophomore, allowed two runs and had a career-high 12 strikeouts to earn the victory.

With a storm looming, officials will decide whether the second of this three-game series will be played on Saturday or rolled into a doubleheader on Sunday.