For the first time in three years, seven runs weren’t good enough to get the Hawaii baseball team a victory.

The Rainbow Warriors scored seven unanswered runs but left the tying man on second in the ninth inning as No. 15 UC Santa Barbara held on for an 8-7 win on Saturday afternoon at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Steven Pollakov, who walked and singled after replacing Trevor Podratz at catcher in the sixth inning, grounded out to UCSB closer Dillon Tate, who earned his sixth save despite giving up five hits in two innings.

Hawaii (13-13, 1-1) had won its past 15 games when scoring at least seven runs, dating back to 2011. UH matched a season high with 14 hits for the second straight game.

 "We just didn’t play well for the first time in a couple of weeks," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "It started with Scott (Squier). He just didn’t have anything and we made a couple of mental mistakes on the bases that cost us."

Squier (2-2) had his worst outing of the season, allowing six runs on six hits in four innings.

The Gauchos (19-4, 1-1) had four straight extra-base hits off Squier in the fourth inning, capped by back-to-back triples from Tyler Kuresa and Woody Woodward.

Joey Epperson, who finished 4-for-4 with two runs scored, doubled in a run in the fifth and scored on Kuresa’s RBI double off reliever Andrew Jones to give UCSB an 8-0 lead.

"Squier and Jones have to be better. That’s all there is to it," Trapasso said. "This is conference play. You have to be able to throw all of your pitches for strikes and Squier couldn’t. He was throwing 3-1 fastballs belt high and every advantage count Santa Barbara got they hammered it."

Pollakov, appearing in only his fifth game this season, came in for Podratz and caught three innings of shutout ball from reliever Eric Gleese, who allowed only one hit and no walks.

Gleese allowed UH to mount a comeback that started with Marc Flores’ two-out RBI single in the sixth.

Pollakov drew a walk in the seventh and scored on Stephen Ventimilia’s RBI single to make it 8-2.

Kaeo Aliviado followed with a bases-clearing triple to cut the deficit in half at 8-5 and Jordan Richartz singled Aliviado in to make it a two-run game.

UCSB brought in Tate in the eighth for a two-inning save and Pollakov hit the first of three straight UH singles to load the bases with one out.

Ventimilia lifted a fly ball to center that Trapasso said should have been deep enough to score Pollakov, who paused long enough before taking off for home to get thrown out on a bang-bang play.

"It’s a shame because (Pollakov) actually gave us a boost when he came into the game," Trapasso said. "He took two steps and then he stopped and started up again. If he would have just kept going he would have been safe."

Hawaii had one more chance in the ninth, which began when Aliviado reached on an error.

Flores set a career high with his fourth hit to put the tying run on first with one out.

After UCSB’s Scott Quinlan robbed Marcus Doi of a hit with a diving catch in right field, freshman Matt Miller pinch-hit for Juliene Jones, who is hitless in his past 34 at-bats.

Miller beat out an infield chopper to second to score Aliviado to make it a one-run game. Flores moved to second, where he was stranded after Pollakov grounded out.

"It was a heck of a college baseball game to watch," Trapasso said. "We want to get back to playing well and play like we have been for the last four or five weeks, and if we do that, we’ll have a chance (on Sunday). It’s all hands on deck."

Trapasso will start left-hander Jarrett Arakawa (1-0, 2.03 ERA) but won’t hesitate to bring reigning Big West pitcher of the week Scott Kuzminsky out of the bullpen.

Freshman Quintin Torres-Costa also hasn’t pitched this weekend.

Santa Barbara has won 10 consecutive series of at least three games.

First pitch is 10 a.m.

Saturday
UC Santa Barbara 8, Hawaii 7
UC Irvine 4, UC Riverside 2
Long Beach State 4, CS Northridge 3
Cal Poly 5, UC Davis 3
*Wichita State 3, Cal State Fullerton 2

Sunday
Hawaii at UC Santa Barbara, 10 a.m., HST
Long Beach State at Cal State Northridge
UC Davis at Cal Poly
UC Riverside at UC Irvine
*Cal State Fullerton at Wichita State

*Nonconference game

E—Wobrock; Maris 2; Kuresa. DP—Hawaii 1; UCSB 1. LOB—Hawaii 9; UCSB?2. 2B—Epperson 2; Nesovic; Kuresa. 3B—Aliviado; Kuresa; Woodward. SB—Richard; Epperson. CS—Morrow.

Umpires—(Plate): Ruben Chavira. (First): Ryan Bleiberg. (Third): Dwayne Finley. T—2:43. A—789.