Mike Trapasso’s biggest preseason concern came to fruition against Cal State Northridge.

All three Hawaii starting pitchers were roughed up by the Matadors, who completed a three-game sweep of the Rainbows with a 10-5 victory Sunday at Les Murakami Stadium.

Josh Goossen-Brown capped a huge weekend for Northridge with a three-run homer in the ninth inning to quiet a crowd of 1,270.

The Matadors (22-17, 8-4 Big West) took over sole possession of second place in the conference with their ninth win in the last 11 games.

"It’s easy to look at a game you sweep somebody and say they had an easy weekend, but these last two games were a dogfight to the end," Northridge coach Matt Curtis said. "We had some key hits late in both games that opened the scores up, but everybody that was here could see that both teams were competing their tail off."

Hawaii (8-27, 3-9) was swept for the fourth time this season and dropped into a three-way tie for last place in the conference with No. 4 Cal State Fullerton coming to town next weekend.

Senior Corey MacDonald was the first Rainbows starter to make it through the sixth inning, but allowed a season-high seven runs on nine hits in eight innings.

"I didn’t make the pitches I needed to make today," MacDonald said. "Big plays, big pitches, big pitches I needed to make in key spots I didn’t make today."

Cal State Northridge scored 23 runs in three games, including 19 in the last two, which is the most Hawaii has given up in consecutive home games this season.

Goossen-Brown finished with four RBIs, and catcher Alexis Mercado went 2-for-4 with a double, run and RBI to finish 7-for-13 in the series.

"That’s the one thing we’ve gotten consistency out of, is (Matt) Cooper and (Corey) MacDonald," Trapasso said. "People will look at the last couple of nights and think we’re in a freefall, but the opposite is true.

"We took steps forward with two games in a row with 21 hits in two games, and I’ll take my chances with nine and 12 hits, and four and five runs, with this team that has struggled offensively."

Hawaii started five lefties against southpaw John Salas, who gave up eight hits and three runs in 41⁄3 innings.

Stephen Ventimilia went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs, and Kalei Hanawahine went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

Ventimilia also stole a base, but was thrown out stealing third in the first inning and again two innings later trying to take third from first on a bunt single by Pi‘ikea Kitamura.

"I haven’t been hitting well against lefties, and today I showed I can hit them," Ventimilia said. "I don’t regret anything on the bases. I was trying to be aggressive and make something happen and that’s my game.

"Today, maybe it didn’t work out, but other days it will."

Seven Matadors scored, but Northridge didn’t put the game away until scoring five times in the last two innings.

Leading 5-4 in the eighth, Northridge had two on with two out when William Colantono lifted a deep fly ball to left.

Hanawahine raced back to track it down and tried to make the catch over his head, but the ball bounced out of his glove and was ruled an error, allowing two runs to score.

Jon Flinn replaced MacDonald in the ninth inning and walked two batters before Goossen-Brown hit a three-run homer over the wall in left off Max Duval.

Nate Ring went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored for Northridge, which pounded out 24 hits in the last two games of the series.

"One through nine put pretty consistent at-bats together, and we did a much better job the last two games of executing our short game," Curtis said. "It’s not what you expect coming here. (Hawaii) has good arms, and our guys just kept coming up with clutch at-bats."