The losses continue to mount for the Hawaii baseball team.
Nick Torres hit a three-run homer in the first inning and Joey Wagman worked his second complete game of the season in Cal Poly’s 8-3 win over Hawaii on Friday night at Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Pi‘ikea Kitamura hit a two-run single for the Rainbows, who equaled their run total from their previous four games.
It still wasn’t enough as Hawaii (7-23, 2-5 Big West) dropped its sixth straight game overall.
UH is 1-9 away from Les Murakami Stadium this season.
"We’re aware of our issues offensively, so we can’t afford to have a game where we didn’t pitch or play defense," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "We really battled and had chances to score and did score a few runs off a really good pitcher, but the areas where we are usually strong is what cost us the game."
Four of Cal Poly’s eight runs came off batters who reached base either by walk, error or hit by pitch.
Connor Little (1-5) took the loss, allowing six runs on seven hits in six innings with one walk and five strikeouts.
Torres hit his sixth home run of the season in the first inning as the first four Mustangs batters all scored.
Denver Chavez went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and Jimmy Allen went 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs for Cal Poly (22-8, 5-2), which remained two games behind league-leading Cal State Fullerton.
Chavez started the game with a single. A throwing error by Stephen Ventimilia allowed Jordan Ellis to reach base.
Hawaii cut the Cal Poly lead in half in the third on a two-out, two-run single by Kitamura. Ventimilia singled up the middle with runners on first and second and one out but got caught in a rundown between first and second.
Third-base coach Rusty McNamara held Adam Hurley, who was on second base after a leadoff single, at third on Ventimilia’s single, leaving Alan Baldwin on second.
Ventimilia tried to advance to second but had nowhere to go once he realized Baldwin was still on the base and was eventually tagged out.
He was pulled for Andre Real, who came on as a pinch hitter in the fifth.
"He didn’t play smart," Trapasso said. "He didn’t pay attention, was running with his head down and it cost us."
Conner George, who is in a 1-for-17 slump, dropped a routine fly ball that led to an unearned run for Cal Poly in the fourth and was replaced by Kalei Hanawahine as a defensive replacement in the fifth.
Hanawahine cut the Cal Poly lead to 6-3 in the sixth with a two-out RBI triple to score Kaeo Aliviado, who had doubled.
Aliviado finished with two hits and a run scored and Austin Wobrock added two more hits for UH, which had eight in the game.
Junior Matt Cooper (2-3, 2.58) will oppose sophomore left-hander Matt Imhof (3-1, 1.72) in the second game of the series at 3 p.m. today.