A victory today will add Cal State Northridge to a list that includes nationally ranked teams Oregon, Rice and UC Irvine.
Josh Goossen-Brown went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, and the Matadors tagged Hawaii starter Matt Cooper for a season-high 10 hits and seven runs allowed in a 9-4 win Saturday night in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,423.
Catcher Alexis Mercado added two hits and two RBIs for Cal State Northridge, which can become the fourth team to sweep Hawaii this season.
The Matadors (21-17, 7-4 Big West) moved into a tie for second place in the conference with Cal Poly and can hand the Rainbows (8-26, 3-8) a third home sweep this season.
Hawaii had only lost every game in a home series twice in its previous eight seasons combined.
"There are no gimmies in West Coast college baseball and there are no gimmies ever," Cal State Northridge coach Matt Curtis said. "We’re happy with where we’re at, but you know, every game is worth one and we’ll have to come out (today) and play well to have an opportunity to win the game."
The Matadors were relentless offensively against Cooper, who had pitched at least seven innings in each of his three starts at home.
Hawaii’s ERA leader at 2.58 coming in, Cooper gave up more than four earned runs for the first time this season.
The Matadors had six hits in the third inning alone, which is more than Cooper had given up in four of his last five starts.
"They just beat us tonight with their offense," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "Even with our depleted pitching, we don’t get beat very often by getting pounded by the other team’s offense, but that’s what happened tonight."
Nicolas Osuna, who has four hits in the series so far, ended Cooper’s day with a single in the sixth to put runners on first and third.
Sophomore Lawrence Chew came on in relief and allowed a bunt single to Michael Livingston.
Chew fielded the bunt and might have had a play at home but elected not to throw it. He spun to throw to first instead but nobody was covering, allowing Livingston to get on.
After a four-pitch walk to Kyle Attl loaded the bases, Goossen-Brown hit a grounder off the glove of Austin Wobrock behind the base at second, scoring two more runs to make it 8-3.
"It looked like it was going to be a tough matchup, but our offense adjusted to his offspeed pitches," Curtis said. "We put together a few good innings there."
Kalei Hanawahine, who tied a season high with three hits, gave Hawaii a lead for the second straight night with a two-run double off the glove of first baseman Goosen-Brown in the second.
Cal State Northridge answered with a hitting spree off Cooper in the third, scoring four times on six hits to take a 5-2 lead.
"They hit early and often," Trapasso said. "We didn’t pitch well."