Hawaii picked up its first win of the season in Las Vegas over the weekend.

Outside of that, 2013 continues to be a struggle of epic proportions for the UH baseball team, which returns home today with a 1-12 record after losing four of five games on its opening road trip of the season.

Any momentum gained by Saturday’s 8-3 win over Loyola Marymount was crushed by a hot UNLV team that won its sixth straight game, 14-1, over the Rainbows on Monday at Wilson Stadium.

The Rebels (10-3) outscored the Rainbows 26-5 in two days as Hawaii’s worst start in school history continued with its 14th loss in 15 games dating back to last year.

Hawaii lost by at least 13 runs for the first time since a 17-2 defeat to Arizona State in April 2009.

"Maybe I underestimated the impact (injuries) had on our guys and their psyche these last two days because you could see it," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said in a postgame phone interview. "They are a little fragile after that one. There’s a lot that’s happened, but it’s got to get a lot better from here."

During Hawaii’s opening homestand against two highly ranked teams, UH dropped six of eight by three runs or fewer and never lost by more than five runs.

In Las Vegas, UH suffered three of its four losses by at least nine runs.

UNLV scored 26 runs in two games against Hawaii, which is more than either Rice or Oregon scored in four games.

"The ultimate snowball effect has occurred," Trapasso said. "We did not play as well on this trip as we did against Oregon and Rice and I think maybe our guys are a little gun-shy because of those two series."

Hawaii’s pitching woes are magnified by the loss of yet another left-hander to injury.

Freshman Quintin Torres-Costa is expected to have an MRI tonight to determine his status after he injured his left elbow in batting practice on Friday.

UH is already without Jarrett Arakawa, who had surgery on his shoulder and is definitely out for the year. Junior Andrew Jones suffered a ligament tear in his elbow two weeks ago against Oregon and hasn’t officially been ruled out for the season but is likely done.

Trapasso refused to use injuries as an excuse following Sunday’s 12-4 loss, but the UH bullpen took a beating against the Rebels again on Monday.

Hawaii got five innings out of starter Matt Cooper, who left after 103 pitches trailing 4-1.

Cooper struck out six, but allowed eight hits and three walks and had two balks that led to two UNLV runs.

He entered the game ranked in the top 50 in the country with a 0.73 ERA.

"You could see right away with Cooper that those 40 pitches he threw two days ago had an effect," Trapasso said. "Right at the start of the third inning he was getting empty."

Sophomore Lawrence Chew, considered one of UH’s top arms out of the bullpen, was hammered for five hits and seven runs in two-thirds of an inning as UNLV sent 14 men to the plate in a nine-run sixth.

"He couldn’t throw anything for a strike other than a fastball belt-high right down the middle," Trapasso said. "Lawrence has to be better than that."

Hawaii’s offense wasn’t any better, as the Rainbows managed just six hits. Pi‘ikea Kitamura and Andre Real had two hits apiece.

Kitamura doubled to lead off the fourth and scored UH’s only run after two consecutive groundouts to the right side.

Hawaii has scored one run or less in six of 13 games this season and was ranked 268th out of 297 teams with a 2.8-runs-per-game average before Monday’s loss.

The Rainbows host Gonzaga (6-4) for the first of a five-game series beginning Friday. The Zags boast an RPI of 61 and are led by junior ace Marco Gonzales, who is the reigning West Coast Conference pitcher of the year and threw a shutout against No. 2 Arkansas on Friday.

Gonzales, a probable first-round pick in June’s MLB draft, threw eight shutout innings against Hawaii last year, allowing just four hits as the Zags swept a four-game series against the Rainbows in Spokane, Wash.